Hitech Blogger

2010-01-08T12:10:00.000-08:00

Dell Vostro 1000 Review

2007-12-04T10:09:00.001-08:00

The Dell Vostro 1000 is the budget offering in the Dell
Small Business lineup of laptops. It has
a 15.4” screen and comes with an AMD Turion processor. The Vostro 1000 is priced at under $500 with
a basic configuration, so the price really can’t be complained about. But does the low price equate to a cheap
product or is this laptop a great deal for the buck? This review will attempt to answer that.

Specs of Vostro 1000 under review:

Mobile AMD Sempron Processor 3500+ 1.80GHz

15.4” Widescreen XGA (non-glare)

512MB of RAM at 533MHz

ATI Radeon Express 1150

60GB 5400RPM HD

Windows XP Home

Dell Wireless 1390 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi

24X CD Burner DVD Combo

Places to buy

You can buy the Dell Vostro 1000 via Dell.com or over the phone. The Vostro 1000 is easy to configure at Dell.com.
I had to wait less than 10-days for my Vostro to ship after placing the
order. In fact, it shipped 5-days after placing the order and arrived to me in a total of 7-days. Quite impressive!

Looks and Construction
Quality

It’s quite obvious that a nice design wasn’t even considered
with the Vostro 1000. This laptop
couldn’t possibly be more standard issue looking. It’s made of black plastic and mostly square
looking. There is simply no design flare
to the laptop. It’s fairly ugly in my
opinion, but then again there’s nothing offensive about it. Anyone that cares a lot about the design
looks of tech products they buy probably will not consider the Vostro
1000. A small business looking to buy
cheap laptops will probably not care about the fact the Vostro 1000 looks like
an ugly beast next to say a MacBook Pro.

The build quality of the Vostro 1000 is middling, as you
would expect for this price. It’s made
entirely of plastic, but is not as flimsy as you might assume. In fact, the plastic body doesn’t have too
much give to it. I’ve certainly
experienced worse, cheap Acer laptops sold in CompUSA for $400 definitely feel more flimsy than the Vostro 1000.

One thing you should be aware of is that the chassis and
build quality of the Vostro 1000 is entirely different to the Vostro 1400 and
Vostro 1500. The Vostro 1400 and 1500
have magnesium in their case body, which makes them much sturdier. If you need a laptop to last you 3 – 4 years, the Vostro 1400/1500 are
the way to go. They also look nicer
because they have a bit of a curved finish, media buttons, LED accent lighting
and you can see a metallic finish that’s more professional looking.

Weigh-in

The advantage of the Vostro 1000 being made
of plastic is that it’s actually quite light for a 15.4” screen laptop. It’s only slightly heavier than the Vostro
1400 – a smaller 14.1” screen laptop. In
the picture below you’ll see that the Vostro 1000 tips the scale at 5.8lbs,
which is really quite light for the size:

The small Vostro 1400 tips the scale at 5.64lbs, only
slightly less weight than the Vostro 1000:

And the Vostro 1500 tips the scales at 6.5lbs, much heavier
than the Vostro 1000!

Here's a comparison of the Vostro 1000 weight to some similar sized notebooks:

Notebook	Actual Weight
Dell Vostro 1000 (15.4" screen, 4-cell battery)	5.8lbs
Dell Vostro 1500 (15.4" screen, 6-cell battery)	6.75lbs
Dell Inspiron 1520 (15.4" screen, 9-cell battery)	7.4lbs
HP Pavilion dv6500t (15.4” screen, 6-cell battery)	6.10lbs
Sony VAIO FZ (15.4” screen, 6-cell battery)	5.62lbs

It's always good to consider how much a notebook weighs when you add
in the power adapter for travel weight, here you can see that with the 4-cell battery and power adapter the total weight of the system comes
to about 6.65lbs

Size-Up

Another interesting metric I like to look at is the dimensions of
the notebook compared to similar notebooks.

Notebook	Dimensions
Dell Vostro 1000 (15.4" screen)	14.02" (W) x 1.42" (max H) x 10.45" (D)
Dell Vostro 1500 (15.4" screen)	14.12" (W) x 1.65" (max H) x 10.59" (D)
HP Pavilion dv6500t (15.4” screen)	14.05" (W) x 1” - 1.69" (max H) x 10.12" (D)
Dell Inspiron 1520 (15.4” screen)	14.12 (W) x 1.47 - 1.65” (H) x 10.59” (D)
Sony VAIO FE (15.4” screen)	14.41” (W) x 1.02” -1.39” (H) x 10.81” (D)
Sony VAIO FZ (15.4” screen)	14"(W) x 0.98-1.4"(H) x 10.02"(D)

The Vostro 1000 is overall smaller than the Vostro 1500, but it's not as thin and sleek as the competing VAIO notebooks. Not that the Vostro 1000 was ever trying to be sleek!

Ports

The port selection for the Vostro 1500 is on par with other 15.4" notebooks. Again I’ll compare it to what
similar notebooks have so you get an idea of where it stands relative
to competition:

Ports	Vostro 1000	HP dv6500t	Sony VAIO FZ
USB 2.0	4	3	3
FireWire	No	Yes	Yes
Media Card Reader	Yes (3-in-1)	4-in-1	Yes (MS and SD)
Ethernet	Yes	Yes	Yes
Modem	Yes	Yes	Yes
Headphone out	Yes	Yes	Yes
Microphone in	Yes	Yes	Yes
Monitor out	Yes	Yes	Yes
HDMI	No	Yes	Yes (optional)
DVI-D	No	No	No
S-Video	No	Yes	Yes
ExpressCard Slot	Yes (54mm)	Yes (34mm/54mm)	Yes (34mm)
PCMCIA Slot	No	No	No
Expansion Dock Port	No	Yes	No

Unsurprisingly there are no high-definition video output ports such as HDMI, DVI or even so much as S-Video on the Vostro 1000. Though the Vostro 1000 doesn't have a stunning array of ports, it at least offers all of the essentials and a generous four USB ports.

Let's take a tour around the ports of the Vostro 1000 to see where they're located:

Front side

On the front you just see the speakers and the latch on the lid. The latch is pretty cheap feeling, it's made of plastic.

Left Side

On the left side you just have the optical drive, which can be either a DVD/CD-RW Combo or Dual Layer DVD+R write drive.

Right Side

On the right side you have the Express card 54mm slot, 3-in-1
media card reader, headphone out, microphone in and then two USB ports.

Back Side

On the back you have the power jack, Ethernet port, modem port, two more USB ports, and a monitor out port.

Performance

The AMD Turion and Sempron processor family is lacking when
compared to the Intel Core 2 Duo offerings. It’s pretty amazing how AMD went from being competitive with its mobile
processors 2 years ago to being almost stagnant and non-competitive today. They haven’t updated their mobile processors
in quite some time.

However, if you’re not going to be using a laptop for
high-end demanding work, then the cheaper AMD offerings might be just the right
ticket. Dell obviously is able to sell
the Vostro 1000 for cheaper because it contains a budget AMD processor. The AMD Sempron and Turion processors offered
will run Office applications and web browsers just fine. If you’re a multi-tasking fiend and have
several applications open at once, you might be upset by the performance of the
processor, but if you’re more of a one task at a time person then it won’t make
any difference to you if there’s an AMD Sempron 3000 processor or a much more
expensive (and faster) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.20 GHz processor powering your
laptop.

One thing that’s probably as important as the processor is
getting enough memory. If you go with
Windows XP I would say 1GB is the optimal amount of memory, but you could get
away with just 512MB. If you’re running
Windows Vista then you really want 2GB of memory, but you could get away with
just 1GB. The Vostro 1000 under review
has Windows XP installed. With 512MB of
memory it runs ‘okay’, but it does lag a bit when opening programs or clicking
on menus. If there was 1 – 2GB of memory
in this machine that lag would definitely go away.

The hard drive offerings for the Vostro 1000 range from 60GB
– 120GB. They’re all the same speed of
5400RPM, which is adequate. I’d go with
80GB or up for storage, if you think you’ll be storing a lot of videos and
music then the 120GB size is preferable. If the only thing you’ll be storing is word docs, power point
presentations and email then 80GB should be fine.

Some Benchmarks

It always helps to put some numbers to the perceived
performance level. In the comparison
table below, you’ll see that the Vostro 1000 doesn’t keep up with laptops that
have faster internal components:

In the following benchmark the program Super Pi was used to force the processor to calculate the number Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy. The lower the score the better, as that equates to faster. The Vostro 1000 was much slower than the Intel based competitors

WPrime is another program that forces the processor to do intense calculations, this time to calculate Prime numbers out to 32M. Again, lower scores (in seconds) mean faster performance:

HDTune was run to measure the disk drive performance, which was in line for what you'd expect from a 5400RPM hard drive:

Screen

The screen is a 15.4” Widescreen XGA display (1280 x 800
resolution). XGA is the most standard
resolution you can get with laptops, and suits most people. You can choose between a glossy screen finish
and matte finish screen, the glossy finish is a $30 upgrade. If you plan on watching movies and prefer
more vibrant and bold colors then go with the glossy screen. The only warning to heed with the glossy
screen is that it is a lot more reflective, in a bright light setting you’ll
see a lot of lights reflecting off the screen.

I got the matte finish screen. The brightness of the Vostro 1000 screen
isn’t all that great, it’s certainly below average relative to other laptops. The other major flaw is the amount of light
leakage you get from the bottom of the screen. If you look at some pictures I’ll took you’ll see a lot of the backlight
bleeding from the bottom of the screen, this is especially noticeable when
you’ve got a lot of dark colors on the screen.

Overall the Vostro 1000 screen is pretty bad in terms of
quality, it’s not the worst screen I’ve seen but it’s far from the top. Obviously the LCD panel is a cheaper one,
which is what you should expect to get for the price.

Keyboard

The keyboard is rather dull in its feel. The feedback from the keys isn’t very good
and it seems as if some of these keys are just waiting to jump off. You can’t describe the keyboard as anything
but cheap feeling. I’m a snob and very
particular when it comes to keyboards though, others might not be so put off.

Touchpad

The touchpad itself works just fine, no real complaints
there. The mouse buttons are clunky and
cheap feeling, they’re not very pleasing to use.

Software

The really great thing about the Vostro 1000 is that it
comes with very little bloatware. There
were only 44 processes at startup out of the box. That’s literally half of the amount you’ll
get on most consumer notebooks these days that are sold with a glut of “free”
software that you’ll never use and rather not have. Having such a clean system really helps with
performance, it’s a beautiful thing not to see a bunch of garbage already on
your new computer.

The other great news is that Dell provides all necessary
recovery disks and drivers on disks. There’s no need to have to burn your own recovery disks like some
manufacturers are now making you do.

Battery

There are three battery options for the Dell Vostro 1000: 4-cell, 6-cell or 9-cell. I purchased the cheapest option 4-cell 29WHr
variety battery. I regret this because the
6-cell is only about a $20 upgrade and would have provided far better battery
life. With brightness set to half way
and wireless on and the system idling, the battery on the Vostro 1000 conked
out after 1hour and 50 minutes. If you’re
actually working on the notebook you can expect about 1h 30m of battery
life. If you’re watching a movie with
the screen at full brightness you’ll be lucky to get an hour of battery life
out of the 4-cell.

I understand that the 6-cell battery provides almost 3 hours
of battery life under normal usage, so I’d go with that option. The 6-cell will be slightly heavier, but that’s
a worthwhile trade off for the longer battery life.

Audio

There are two front firing speakers on the Vostro 1000. As is typical for notebook speakers, the
audio is very tinny and not pleasing to the ears. If you’re an audiophile you’ll find the
speakers painful, if you’re not discriminating then the sound might be
considered adequate. Using headphones
will provide a much richer listening experience.

Noise level

The Vostro 1000 runs quietly, the size, plastic body and low
power of the laptop all contribute to keeping this notebook quite cool so that
the fan doesn’t have to run very often and thus keeps things quiet.

Conclusion

The Vostro 1000 is good for the price, though you certainly
get what you pay for. The screen is
middling, the keyboard mediocre, performance is ho-hum, and the build is all
plastic and lacking quality. However, if
all you’re looking for is a cheap laptop to sit on a desk and be used for
productivity tasks such as Office applications and web surfing, then the Vostro
1000 will serve that need. At the end of
the day I’d encourage most people to pay an extra $100 - $200 to upgrade to the
better quality Vostro 1500, but if you’re on a tight budget then the Vostro
1000 is an okay buy for the price.

Cheers

The price is right, starting at under $500

Easy to order and configure via Dell.com, quick delivery in under 10-days

Very clean install of Windows without a bunch of garbage software

You get all restore disks and necessary drivers on disks with the computer

Works fine for general usage

Jeers

Made of plastic, not very resistant to hard knocks or drops that a laptop might take

Screen is not very bright and suffers light leakage at the bottom

Keyboard is somewhat clunky

Not a computer meant for power users that game and do lots of multi-tasking

Dell launches free e-waste recycling program covering all Dell computers

2007-12-04T09:58:00.000-08:00

(NewsTarget) In 2004, Dell began offering free recycling for old computers to customers who bought a new Dell unit, but on Wednesday the company announced it would begin taking any Dell-branded hardware for recycling free of charge by the end of 2006.

"We were the first in the computer industry to offer free recycling," says company CEO Michael Dell. "This is another first: to give consumers free recycling whether they're buying a new product or not."

The plan is scheduled to begin by September in the United States, and will be followed by a global unveiling in November.

Currently, Dell competitors Hewlett-Packard and Apple have recycling plans in place akin to Dell's 2004 procedure that required consumers to purchase a replacement computer to get free or rebated recycling, but Dell says it doesn't feel consumers should have to pay anything for recycling.

The free process for recycling Dell hardware will be exactly the same as the current process. Customers visit the Dell website, enter a serial number, print a shipping label, and then schedule a home pickup for the packed product.

When questioned about how this move may affect Dell company revenues, Michael Dell replied, "It just makes sense to do this. I hope this will bring in more customers. Consumers are thinking of (recycling) issues every day."

"By taking responsibility for their products at the end of their useful life, Dell is playing a leadership role in the corporate community, " Computer Takeback Campaign's vice chairperson Robin Schneider said in a statement released Wednesday. "We call on other electronics companies to match Dell's commitment to the environment by offering free recycling of all their products."

Dell executive Tod Arbogast added that customers should be aware that they are responsible for erasing all data on recycled goods.

jodha akbar movie review

2007-11-28T09:27:00.000-08:00

Producer:
UTV
Director:
Ashutosh Gowarikar
Music Director:
A.R.Rehman
Cast:
Hrithik Roshan
Aishwarya Rai

Jodha Akbar is a sixteenth century love story about a marriage of alliance that gave birth to true love between a great Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Rajput princess, Jodhaa.

aaja nachile movie review

2007-11-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

Cast:

Madhuri Dixit
Akshaye Khanna
Konkona Sen Sharma
Kunal Kapoor

P roducer :
Aditya Chopra

Director:
Anil Mehta

Music:
Salim Merchant

All keyboard Shortcuts

2007-10-02T12:39:00.001-07:00

1.) Windows Hotkeys

Shift + F10 right-clicks.
Win + L (XP Only): Locks keyboard. Similar to Lock Workstation.
Win + F or F3: Open Find dialog. (All Files) F3 may not work in some applications which use F3 for their own find dialogs.
Win + Control + F: Open Find dialog. (Computers)
Win + U: Open Utility Manager.
Win + F1: Open Windows help.
Win + Pause: Open System Properties dialog.
Win + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons. Enter clicks, AppsKey or Shift + F10 right-clicks.
Win + Shift + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons in reverse.
Alt + Tab: Display CoolSwitch. More commonly known as the AltTab dialog.
Alt + Shift + Tab: Display CoolSwitch; go in reverse.
Alt + Escape: Send active window to the bottom of the z-order.
Alt + Shift + Escape: Activate the window at the bottom of the z-order.
Alt + F4: Close active window; or, if all windows are closed, open shutdown dialog.
Shift while a CD is loading: Bypass AutoPlay.
Shift while login: Bypass startup folder. Only those applications will be ignored which are in the startup folder, not those started from the registry (Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\)
Ctrl + Alt + Delete or Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDel (Both NumLock states): Invoke the Task Manager or NT Security dialog.
Ctrl + Shift + Escape (2000/XP ) or (Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDot) : Invoke the task manager. On earlier OSes, acts like Ctrl + Escape.
Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current screen to clipboard.
Alt + Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current active window to clipboard.
Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow: Invert screen. Untested on OSes other than XP.
Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow: Undo inversion.
Win + B : Move focus to systray icons.

2.) Generic

Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: Copy.
Ctrl + X or Shift + Delete: Cut.
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: Paste/Move.
Ctrl + N: New... File, Tab, Entry, etc.
Ctrl + S: Save.
Ctrl + O: Open...
Ctrl + P: Print.
Ctrl + Z: Undo.
Ctrl + A: Select all.
Ctrl + F: Find...
Ctrl+W : to close the current window
Ctrl + F4: Close tab or child window.
F1: Open help.
F11: Toggle full screen mode.
Alt or F10: Activate menu bar.
Alt + Space: Display system menu. Same as clicking the icon on the titlebar.
Escape: Remove focus from current control/menu, or close dialog box.

3.) Generic Navigation

Tab: Forward one item.
Shift + Tab: Backward one item.
Ctrl + Tab: Cycle through tabs/child windows.
Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Cycle backwards through tabs/child windows.
Enter: If a button's selected, click it, otherwise, click default button.
Space: Toggle items such as radio buttons or checkboxes.
Alt + (Letter): Activate item corresponding to (Letter). (Letter) is the underlined letter on the item's name.
Ctrl + Left: Move cursor to the beginning of previous word.
Ctrl + Right: Move cursor to the beginning of next word.
Ctrl + Up: Move cursor to beginning of previous paragraph. This and all subsequent Up/Down hotkeys in this section have only been known to work in RichEdit controls.
Ctrl + Down: Move cursor to beginning of next paragraph.
Shift + Left: Highlight one character to the left.
Shift + Right: Highlight one character to the right.
Shift + Up: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line up.
Shift + Down: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line down.
Ctrl + Shift + Left: Highlight to beginning of previous word.
Ctrl + Shift + Right: Highlight to beginning of next word.
Ctrl + Shift + Up: Highlight to beginning of previous paragraph.
Ctrl + Shift + Down: Highlight to beginning of next paragraph.
Home: Move cursor to top of a scrollable control.
End: Move cursor to bottom of a scrollable control.

4.) Generic File Browser

Arrow Keys: Navigate.
Shift + Arrow Keys: Select multiple items.
Ctrl + Arrow Keys: Change focus without changing selection. "Focus" is the object that will run on Enter. Space toggles selection of the focused item.
(Letter): Select first found item that begins with (Letter).
BackSpace: Go up one level to the parent directory.
Alt + Left: Go back one folder.
Alt + Right: Go forward one folder.
Enter: Activate (Double-click) selected item(s).
Alt + Enter: View properties for selected item.
F2: Rename selected item(s).
Ctrl + NumpadPlus: In a Details view, resizes all columns to fit the longest item in each one.
Delete: Delete selected item(s).
Shift + Delete: Delete selected item(s); bypass Recycle Bin.
Ctrl while dragging item(s): Copy.
Ctrl + Shift while dragging item(s): Create shortcut(s).
In tree pane, if any:
Left: Collapse the current selection if expanded, or select the parent folder.
Right: Expand the current selection if collapsed, or select the first subfolder.
NumpadAsterisk: Expand currently selected directory and all subdirectories. No undo.
NumpadPlus: Expand currently selected directory.
NumpadMinus: Collapse currently selected directory.

5.) Accessibility

Right Shift for eight seconds: Toggle FilterKeys on and off. FilterKeys must be enabled.
Left Alt + Left Shift + PrintScreen: Toggle High Contrast on and off. High Contrast must be enabled.
Left Alt + Left Shift + NumLock: Toggle MouseKeys on and off. MouseKeys must be enabled.
NumLock for five seconds: Toggle ToggleKeys on and off. ToggleKeys must be enabled.
Shift five times: Toggle StickyKeys on and off. StickyKeys must be enabled.
6.) Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType Software Installed
Win + L: Log off Windows.
Win + P: Open Print Manager.
Win + C: Open control panel.
Win + V: Open clipboard.
Win + K: Open keyboard properties.
Win + I: Open mouse properties.
Win + A: Open Accessibility properties.
Win + Space: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys.
Win + S: Toggle CapsLock on and off.

7.) Remote Desktop Connection Navigation

Ctrl + Alt + End: Open the NT Security dialog.
Alt + PageUp: Switch between programs.
Alt + PageDown: Switch between programs in reverse.
Alt + Insert: Cycle through the programs in most recently used order.
Alt + Home: Display start menu.
Ctrl + Alt + Break: Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen.
Alt + Delete: Display the Windows menu.
Ctrl + Alt + NumpadMinus: Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing Alt + PrintScreen on a local computer.
Ctrl + Alt + NumpadPlus: Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PrintScreen on a local computer.

8.) Mozilla Firefox Shortcuts

Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + PageDown: Cycle through tabs.
Ctrl + Shift + Tab or Ctrl + PageUp: Cycle through tabs in reverse.
Ctrl + (1-9): Switch to tab corresponding to number.
Ctrl + N: New window.
Ctrl + T: New tab.
Ctrl + L or Alt + D or F6: Switch focus to location bar.
Ctrl + Enter: Open location in new tab.
Shift + Enter: Open location in new window.
Ctrl + K or Ctrl + E: Switch focus to search bar.
Ctrl + O: Open a local file.
Ctrl + W: Close tab, or window if there's only one tab open.
Ctrl + Shift + W: Close window.
Ctrl + S: Save page as a local file.
Ctrl + P: Print page.
Ctrl + F or F3: Open find toolbar.
Ctrl + G or F3: Find next...
Ctrl + Shift + G or Shift + F3: Find previous...
Ctrl + B or Ctrl + I: Open Bookmarks sidebar.
Ctrl + H: Open History sidebar.
Escape: Stop loading page.
Ctrl + R or F5: Reload current page.
Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + F5: Reload current page; bypass cache.
Ctrl + U: View page source.
Ctrl + D: Bookmark current page.
Ctrl + NumpadPlus or Ctrl + Equals (+/=): Increase text size.
Ctrl + NumpadMinus or Ctrl + Minus: Decrease text size.
Ctrl + Numpad0 or Ctrl + 0: Set text size to default.
Alt + Left or Backspace: Back.
Alt + Right or Shift + Backspace: Forward.
Alt + Home: Open home page.
Ctrl + M: Open new message in integrated mail client.
Ctrl + J: Open Downloads dialog.
F6: Switch to next frame. You must have selected something on the page already, e.g. by use of Tab.
Shift + F6: Switch to previous frame.
Apostrophe ('): Find link as you type.
Slash (/): Find text as you type.

9.) GMail

Note: Must have "keyboard shortcuts" on in settings.
C: Compose new message.
Shift + C: Open new window to compose new message.
Slash (/): Switch focus to search box.
K: Switch focus to the next most recent email. Enter or "O" opens focused email.
J: Switch focus to the next oldest email.
N: Switch focus to the next message in the "conversation." Enter or "O" expands/collapses messages.
P: Switch focus to the previous message.
U: Takes you back to the inbox and checks for new mail.
Y: Various actions depending on current view:
Has no effect in "Sent" and "All Mail" views.
Inbox: Archive email or message.
Starred: Unstar email or message.
Spam: Unmark as spam and move back to "Inbox."
Trash: Move back to "Inbox."
Any label: Remove the label.
X: "Check" an email. Various actions can be performed against all checked emails.
S: "Star" an email. Identical to the more familiar term, "flagging."
R: Reply to the email.
A: Reply to all recipients of the email.
F: Forward an email.
Shift + R: Reply to the email in a new window.
Shift + A: Reply to all recipients of the email in a new window.
Shift + F: Forward an email in a new window.
Shift + 1 (!): Mark an email as spam and remove it from the inbox.
G then I: Switch to "Inbox" view.
G then S: Switch to "Starred" view.
G then A: Switch to "All Mail" view.
G then C: Switch to "Contacts" view.
G then S: Switch to "Drafts" view.

10.) List of F1-F9 Key Commands for the Command Prompt

F1 / right arrow: Repeats the letters of the last command line, one by one.
F2: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to copy up to" of the last command line
F3: Repeats the last command line
F4: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to delete up to" of the last command line
F5: Goes back one command line
F6: Enters the traditional CTRL+Z (^z)
F7: Displays a menu with the command line history
F8: Cycles back through previous command lines (beginning with most recent)
F9: Displays a dialog asking user to enter a command number, where 0 is for first command line entered.
Alt+Enter: toggle fullScreen mode.
up/down: scroll thru/repeat previous entries
Esc: delete line
Note: The buffer allows a maximum of 50 command lines. After this number is reached, the first line will be replaced in sequence.

CUT ACROSS WITH THE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
USING THE MOUSE IS EASY, BUT IF YOU REALLY WANT TO WORK ON YOUR PC LIKE A PRO, THESE KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS GET YOU THERE......
SR.NO.
SHORT CUT KEYS
USE
FOR WINDOWS AND ITS PROGRAMS

1.
Help
2. F2 Rename an item
3. F3 Open files
4. ALT+F4 Close window or quit program
5. F10 Activate the menu bar in a program
6. CTRL+ ESC open start menu, use the arrow keys to select an item, or TAB to select the taskbar
7. ALT+ TAB Return to previous program, or hold down the ALT key while repeatedly pressing tab to cycle through open programs
8. SHIFT+ DEL delete items permanently without sending to recycle bin
9. CTRL+ A Highlight all the items in window
10. CTRL+ C Copy
11. CTRL+ X Cut
12. CTRL+ V Paste
13. CTRL+ Z Undo
14. CTRL+ Y Redo
FOR INTERNET EXPLORER AND NETSCAPE
15. Home Jumps to the beginning of the page
16. END Jumps to the end of the page
17. ESC Stops the current page from loading
18. F11 Toggles full screen view
19. ALT+ LEFT ARROW Goes back to the previous page
20. ALT+ RIGHT ARROW Goes forward to the next page
21. ALT+ Home Goes to your Home page
22. CTRL+ N Opens a new browser window
23. CTRL+ W Closes the active window
24. CTRL+ O Opens the address book
25. CTRL+ R Reloads the current page
26. CTRL+ B Opens the Organized Favorites or Bookmarks windows
27. CTRL+ D Add the current page to your Favorites or Bookmarks
28. CTRL+ H Opens the history folder
29. CTRL+ F Finds text on the current page

CONTROL OVER A TO Z
One of the keys whose importance may have gone unnoticed by most of us is the Control key (Ctrl). The Control key in combination with the 26 alphabet keys can make a lot of our work easier than we think. The following pair of keys can come in handy when we want tasks faster than while using the mouse.
Operations that can be performed on the text selected:-
30. CTRL+ A Select all
31. CTRL+ B Bold
32. CTRL+ C Copy
33. CTRL+ E Justify center
34. CTRL+ I Italics
35. CTRL+ J Justify full
36. CTRL+ L Justify Left
37. CTRL+ M Indent
38. CTRL+ Q Remove paragraph Formatting
39. CTRL+ R Justify right
40. CTRL+ T Margin release
41. CTRL+ U Underline
These keys combos can be used to do other operations:-
42. CTRL+ D Opens Font Dialog Box
43. CTRL+ F Find
44. CTRL+ G Go to page, section, line, heading etc
45. CTRL+ H Find and replace
46. CTRL+ K Insert Hyperlink
47. CTRL+ N Open a new document
48. CTRL+ O Open an existing document
49. CTRL+ S Save
50 CTRL+ W Close an existing document
51. CTRL+ Y Redo
52. CTRL+ Z Undo
Besides the alphabet keys, a combination of other keys also helps:-
53. CTRL+ LEFT ARROW Jumps one word left
54. CTRL+ RIGHT ARROW Jumps one word right
55. CTRL+ DOWN ARROW Jumps one para down
56. CTRL+ UP ARROW Jumps one para up
57. CTRL+ BACKSPACE Delete one word left
58. CTRL+ DELETE Delete one word right
59. CTRL+ PAGE UP To the beginning of the previous page
60. CTRL+ PAGE DOWN to the beginning of the next page

All keyboard Shortcuts

2007-10-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

1.) Windows Hotkeys

Shift + F10 right-clicks.
Win + L (XP Only): Locks keyboard. Similar to Lock Workstation.
Win + F or F3: Open Find dialog. (All Files) F3 may not work in some applications which use F3 for their own find dialogs.
Win + Control + F: Open Find dialog. (Computers)
Win + U: Open Utility Manager.
Win + F1: Open Windows help.
Win + Pause: Open System Properties dialog.
Win + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons. Enter clicks, AppsKey or Shift + F10 right-clicks.
Win + Shift + Tab: Cycle through taskbar buttons in reverse.
Alt + Tab: Display CoolSwitch. More commonly known as the AltTab dialog.
Alt + Shift + Tab: Display CoolSwitch; go in reverse.
Alt + Escape: Send active window to the bottom of the z-order.
Alt + Shift + Escape: Activate the window at the bottom of the z-order.
Alt + F4: Close active window; or, if all windows are closed, open shutdown dialog.
Shift while a CD is loading: Bypass AutoPlay.
Shift while login: Bypass startup folder. Only those applications will be ignored which are in the startup folder, not those started from the registry (Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\)
Ctrl + Alt + Delete or Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDel (Both NumLock states): Invoke the Task Manager or NT Security dialog.
Ctrl + Shift + Escape (2000/XP ) or (Ctrl + Alt + NumpadDot) : Invoke the task manager. On earlier OSes, acts like Ctrl + Escape.
Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current screen to clipboard.
Alt + Printscreen: Copy screenshot of current active window to clipboard.
Ctrl + Alt + Down Arrow: Invert screen. Untested on OSes other than XP.
Ctrl + Alt + Up Arrow: Undo inversion.
Win + B : Move focus to systray icons.

2.) Generic

Ctrl + C or Ctrl + Insert: Copy.
Ctrl + X or Shift + Delete: Cut.
Ctrl + V or Shift + Insert: Paste/Move.
Ctrl + N: New... File, Tab, Entry, etc.
Ctrl + S: Save.
Ctrl + O: Open...
Ctrl + P: Print.
Ctrl + Z: Undo.
Ctrl + A: Select all.
Ctrl + F: Find...
Ctrl+W : to close the current window
Ctrl + F4: Close tab or child window.
F1: Open help.
F11: Toggle full screen mode.
Alt or F10: Activate menu bar.
Alt + Space: Display system menu. Same as clicking the icon on the titlebar.
Escape: Remove focus from current control/menu, or close dialog box.

3.) Generic Navigation

Tab: Forward one item.
Shift + Tab: Backward one item.
Ctrl + Tab: Cycle through tabs/child windows.
Ctrl + Shift + Tab: Cycle backwards through tabs/child windows.
Enter: If a button's selected, click it, otherwise, click default button.
Space: Toggle items such as radio buttons or checkboxes.
Alt + (Letter): Activate item corresponding to (Letter). (Letter) is the underlined letter on the item's name.
Ctrl + Left: Move cursor to the beginning of previous word.
Ctrl + Right: Move cursor to the beginning of next word.
Ctrl + Up: Move cursor to beginning of previous paragraph. This and all subsequent Up/Down hotkeys in this section have only been known to work in RichEdit controls.
Ctrl + Down: Move cursor to beginning of next paragraph.
Shift + Left: Highlight one character to the left.
Shift + Right: Highlight one character to the right.
Shift + Up: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line up.
Shift + Down: Highlight from current cursor position, to one line down.
Ctrl + Shift + Left: Highlight to beginning of previous word.
Ctrl + Shift + Right: Highlight to beginning of next word.
Ctrl + Shift + Up: Highlight to beginning of previous paragraph.
Ctrl + Shift + Down: Highlight to beginning of next paragraph.
Home: Move cursor to top of a scrollable control.
End: Move cursor to bottom of a scrollable control.

4.) Generic File Browser

Arrow Keys: Navigate.
Shift + Arrow Keys: Select multiple items.
Ctrl + Arrow Keys: Change focus without changing selection. "Focus" is the object that will run on Enter. Space toggles selection of the focused item.
(Letter): Select first found item that begins with (Letter).
BackSpace: Go up one level to the parent directory.
Alt + Left: Go back one folder.
Alt + Right: Go forward one folder.
Enter: Activate (Double-click) selected item(s).
Alt + Enter: View properties for selected item.
F2: Rename selected item(s).
Ctrl + NumpadPlus: In a Details view, resizes all columns to fit the longest item in each one.
Delete: Delete selected item(s).
Shift + Delete: Delete selected item(s); bypass Recycle Bin.
Ctrl while dragging item(s): Copy.
Ctrl + Shift while dragging item(s): Create shortcut(s).
In tree pane, if any:
Left: Collapse the current selection if expanded, or select the parent folder.
Right: Expand the current selection if collapsed, or select the first subfolder.
NumpadAsterisk: Expand currently selected directory and all subdirectories. No undo.
NumpadPlus: Expand currently selected directory.
NumpadMinus: Collapse currently selected directory.

5.) Accessibility

Right Shift for eight seconds: Toggle FilterKeys on and off. FilterKeys must be enabled.
Left Alt + Left Shift + PrintScreen: Toggle High Contrast on and off. High Contrast must be enabled.
Left Alt + Left Shift + NumLock: Toggle MouseKeys on and off. MouseKeys must be enabled.
NumLock for five seconds: Toggle ToggleKeys on and off. ToggleKeys must be enabled.
Shift five times: Toggle StickyKeys on and off. StickyKeys must be enabled.
6.) Microsoft Natural Keyboard with IntelliType Software Installed
Win + L: Log off Windows.
Win + P: Open Print Manager.
Win + C: Open control panel.
Win + V: Open clipboard.
Win + K: Open keyboard properties.
Win + I: Open mouse properties.
Win + A: Open Accessibility properties.
Win + Space: Displays the list of Microsoft IntelliType shortcut keys.
Win + S: Toggle CapsLock on and off.

7.) Remote Desktop Connection Navigation

Ctrl + Alt + End: Open the NT Security dialog.
Alt + PageUp: Switch between programs.
Alt + PageDown: Switch between programs in reverse.
Alt + Insert: Cycle through the programs in most recently used order.
Alt + Home: Display start menu.
Ctrl + Alt + Break: Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen.
Alt + Delete: Display the Windows menu.
Ctrl + Alt + NumpadMinus: Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing Alt + PrintScreen on a local computer.
Ctrl + Alt + NumpadPlus: Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PrintScreen on a local computer.

8.) Mozilla Firefox Shortcuts

Ctrl + Tab or Ctrl + PageDown: Cycle through tabs.
Ctrl + Shift + Tab or Ctrl + PageUp: Cycle through tabs in reverse.
Ctrl + (1-9): Switch to tab corresponding to number.
Ctrl + N: New window.
Ctrl + T: New tab.
Ctrl + L or Alt + D or F6: Switch focus to location bar.
Ctrl + Enter: Open location in new tab.
Shift + Enter: Open location in new window.
Ctrl + K or Ctrl + E: Switch focus to search bar.
Ctrl + O: Open a local file.
Ctrl + W: Close tab, or window if there's only one tab open.
Ctrl + Shift + W: Close window.
Ctrl + S: Save page as a local file.
Ctrl + P: Print page.
Ctrl + F or F3: Open find toolbar.
Ctrl + G or F3: Find next...
Ctrl + Shift + G or Shift + F3: Find previous...
Ctrl + B or Ctrl + I: Open Bookmarks sidebar.
Ctrl + H: Open History sidebar.
Escape: Stop loading page.
Ctrl + R or F5: Reload current page.
Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + F5: Reload current page; bypass cache.
Ctrl + U: View page source.
Ctrl + D: Bookmark current page.
Ctrl + NumpadPlus or Ctrl + Equals (+/=): Increase text size.
Ctrl + NumpadMinus or Ctrl + Minus: Decrease text size.
Ctrl + Numpad0 or Ctrl + 0: Set text size to default.
Alt + Left or Backspace: Back.
Alt + Right or Shift + Backspace: Forward.
Alt + Home: Open home page.
Ctrl + M: Open new message in integrated mail client.
Ctrl + J: Open Downloads dialog.
F6: Switch to next frame. You must have selected something on the page already, e.g. by use of Tab.
Shift + F6: Switch to previous frame.
Apostrophe ('): Find link as you type.
Slash (/): Find text as you type.

9.) GMail

Note: Must have "keyboard shortcuts" on in settings.
C: Compose new message.
Shift + C: Open new window to compose new message.
Slash (/): Switch focus to search box.
K: Switch focus to the next most recent email. Enter or "O" opens focused email.
J: Switch focus to the next oldest email.
N: Switch focus to the next message in the "conversation." Enter or "O" expands/collapses messages.
P: Switch focus to the previous message.
U: Takes you back to the inbox and checks for new mail.
Y: Various actions depending on current view:
Has no effect in "Sent" and "All Mail" views.
Inbox: Archive email or message.
Starred: Unstar email or message.
Spam: Unmark as spam and move back to "Inbox."
Trash: Move back to "Inbox."
Any label: Remove the label.
X: "Check" an email. Various actions can be performed against all checked emails.
S: "Star" an email. Identical to the more familiar term, "flagging."
R: Reply to the email.
A: Reply to all recipients of the email.
F: Forward an email.
Shift + R: Reply to the email in a new window.
Shift + A: Reply to all recipients of the email in a new window.
Shift + F: Forward an email in a new window.
Shift + 1 (!): Mark an email as spam and remove it from the inbox.
G then I: Switch to "Inbox" view.
G then S: Switch to "Starred" view.
G then A: Switch to "All Mail" view.
G then C: Switch to "Contacts" view.
G then S: Switch to "Drafts" view.

10.) List of F1-F9 Key Commands for the Command Prompt

F1 / right arrow: Repeats the letters of the last command line, one by one.
F2: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to copy up to" of the last command line
F3: Repeats the last command line
F4: Displays a dialog asking user to "enter the char to delete up to" of the last command line
F5: Goes back one command line
F6: Enters the traditional CTRL+Z (^z)
F7: Displays a menu with the command line history
F8: Cycles back through previous command lines (beginning with most recent)
F9: Displays a dialog asking user to enter a command number, where 0 is for first command line entered.
Alt+Enter: toggle fullScreen mode.
up/down: scroll thru/repeat previous entries
Esc: delete line
Note: The buffer allows a maximum of 50 command lines. After this number is reached, the first line will be replaced in sequence.

Scrolling Text - Marquee HTML Code

2007-08-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

This HTML term Marquee is used to create a scrolling or sliding text. The text can move across the screen horizontally or vertically at a certain speed determined by you. Note, however, that while it looks nice to have scrolling announcements, advertisements, quotations, or links, having too much animation in your Blog may distract and irritate your readers. We had earlier created a line of scrolling text in the Header of our Quotes Blog to let you have an idea what you can do for your Blog.

For this tutorial, we begin with a short explanation of what the attributes do before giving you examples of how these attributes can be applied.

Marquee Attributes

behavior="scroll" behavior="alternate" behavior="slide"

This defines how the text will move. The default is Scroll. If the behavior is not specified, the text scrolls by moving from one end to another. Where the behavior is Alternate, the text will move back and forth. The Slide seems to have the same effect as Scroll in Firefox browser. In Internet Explorer, the text under Slide may move to one end and stop.

direction="left" direction="right" direction="up" direction="down"

The default is "left", meaning that if no direction is specified, the text will move from right to left.

loop="3"

This sets the number of times the marquee will scroll. For example, in Internet Explorer, if the number is 3, the text will scroll 3 times and stop. This command might be ignored by Firefox and the text continues to scroll. For both browsers, if no value is specified or if this attribute is omitted, the marquee will scroll or loop continuously.

scrollamount="1"

This is the amount of scrolling (in pixels). If the number is 1, the text moves by 1 pixel each time and therefore scrolls at a slow pace. If this attribute is not stated, the default value is 6. The higher the number, the faster the text scrolls.

scrolldelay="100"

This is used to set the interval between each scroll movement in milliseconds. The default value is 85. Here, the higher the value, the slower the text scrolls. A value that is smaller than 60 would be ignored and replaced by the value 60. In Internet Explorer, if you really want the text to zoom at lightning speed, you can set a small delay like 20 and specify the truespeed attribute as true (see below).

truespeed="true" truespeed="false"

This tells the browser whether or not to stick to the scrolldelay values lower than 60 that you have set. The default value is false and the browser will ignore values less than 60. Set it as true if you want the browser to adhere to the low scrolldelay value and have the text scroll very fast.

bgcolor="#XXXXXX"

Should you want a background color for the scrolling text, you can specify the color code into #XXXXXX. You may refer to the HTML Color Code Chart for the color codes.

height="50px" height="80%"

You can specify the height of the marquee box in pixels or percentage value. The default value is the height of the contained text.

width="200px" width="80%"

Similarly, you can set the width of the marquee box in pixels or percentage value. The default width is the width of the frame that the marquee appears in.

vspace="20px" vspace="80%"

In Internet Explorer, you can set the top and bottom margins outside the scrolling text by stating a vspace (vertical space) margin in pixels or percentage value.

hspace="20px" hspace="80%"

You can also set the left and right margins outside the scrolling text by stating a hspace (horizontal space) margin either in pixels or percentage value.

Where to place the marquee code

You can place the scrolling text either in your Header, Footer, Sidebar, or blog post.

To have it above or below the Header or Blog Posts, see that you are able to Add Page Element in the Header and Post Body.

Go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element, select HTML/JavaScript to add the marquee code.

If you want the text to be in your Posts, just like what you see in this post, see that you are in the “Edit HTML” mode and not “Compose” mode when you add the marquee code.

Marquee HTML Code

The basic code to add is this:-

Example 1

<marquee bgcolor="#ffffcc">Text scrolls from right to left by default.</marquee>

Text scrolls from right to left by default.

Notice that by default, the text scrolls from right to left, and it loops continuously. You can of course change the background color by specifying the Hexadecimal color code under bgcolor.

Further Examples of the Marquee code, applying the attributes discussed above:-

Example 2

<marquee behavior="alternate" width="80%" bgcolor="#ffffcc">Bouncing text using the alternate behavior.</marquee>

Bouncing text using the alternate behavior.

Here, the text bounces from one side to the other and the width of the text box has been reduced to 80%.

Example 3

<marquee scrolldelay="150" direction="up" width="300px" height="100px" bgcolor="#ffffcc">Text scrolls upwards. For the text to appear in the next line, add this tag <p></p> after the previous line.</marquee>

Text scrolls upwards.

For the text to appear in the next line, add this tag <p></p> after the previous line.

The scrolldelay has been set at 150. Increase this value if you want a slower speed.

Example 4

<marquee hspace="50%" direction="down" scrollamount="2" height="100px" bgcolor="#ffffcc">Text scrolls downwards. For the text to appear in the next line, add this tag <p></p> after the previous line.</marquee>

Text scrolls downwards.

For the text to appear in the next line, add this tag <p></p> after the previous line.

In this example, we use scrollamount to control the speed. The higher the value, the faster the speed. In Internet Explorer, you will see the left and right margins set under hspace.

Change Font style and Color of text

Notice in the above examples that the text is black. If you want a different color or style for your text, you can set the style of the text before the marquee code. Here are some examples:-

Example 5

<span style="color:#F6358A; font-size:130%; font-style:italic; font-weight:bold;"><marquee direction="right" scrollamount="3" bgcolor="#ffffcc">Text scrolls from left to right.</marquee></span>

Text scrolls from left to right.

What we have done here is to specify a color for the text. You can look up the Color Code Chart for more colors. The font-size is bigger, and the font is in bold and italics.

Example 6

<span style="color:#6AFB92; font-size:xx-large; font-family:fantasy; font-weight:bold;"><marquee direction="right" scrollamount="3" bgcolor="#333333">Text scrolls from left to right.</marquee></span>

Text scrolls from left to right.

You can set the font-family for the text. It can be a generic font like cursive, serif, monospace, fantasy and so on. It can also be a specific font family like times, arial, courier, verdana, etc. You can state the font-size as xx-small, x-small, small, smaller, xx-large, x-large, large, larger, or a percentage value

Hexadecimal HTML Color Codes and Names

2007-08-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

div class='post-body'>

Changing background and border colors will add a special identity to your site.

Under the Template tab, you see “Fonts and Colors”. Clicking that, you will be able to change the colors, font types, and font size. However the available colors on the screen are limited. If you cannot find the color you want, you may want to copy the appropriate hex codes of the colors below, and paste them into the “color hex code” box and press Enter. Try out different combinations, and change them as and when you like.

HTML Color Code Chart

COLOR NAME	CODE	COLOR
Black	#000000
Grey0	#150517
Grey18	#250517
Grey21	#2B1B17
Grey23	#302217
Grey24	#302226
Grey25	#342826
Grey26	#34282C
Grey27	#382D2C
Grey28	#3b3131
Grey29	#3E3535
Grey30	#413839
Grey31	#41383C
Grey32	#463E3F
Grey34	#4A4344
Grey35	#4C4646
Grey36	#4E4848
Grey37	#504A4B
Grey38	#544E4F
Grey39	#565051
Grey40	#595454
Grey41	#5C5858
Grey42	#5F5A59
Grey43	#625D5D
Grey44	#646060
Grey45	#666362
Grey46	#696565
Grey47	#6D6968
Grey48	#6E6A6B
Grey49	#726E6D
Grey50	#747170
Grey	#736F6E
Slate Grey4	#616D7E
Slate Grey	#657383
Light Steel Blue4	#646D7E
Light Slate Grey	#6D7B8D
Cadet Blue4	#4C787E
Dark Slate Grey4	#4C7D7E
Thistle4	#806D7E
Medium Slate Blue	#5E5A80
Medium Purple4	#4E387E
Midnight Blue	#151B54
Dark Slate Blue	#2B3856
Dark Slate Grey	#25383C
Dim Grey	#463E41
Cornflower Blue	#151B8D
Royal Blue4	#15317E
Slate Blue4	#342D7E
Royal Blue	#2B60DE
Royal Blue1	#306EFF
Royal Blue2	#2B65EC
Royal Blue3	#2554C7
Deep Sky Blue	#3BB9FF
Deep Sky Blue2	#38ACEC
Slate Blue	#357EC7
Deep Sky Blue3	#3090C7
Deep Sky Blue4	#25587E
Dodger Blue	#1589FF
Dodger Blue2	#157DEC
Dodger Blue3	#1569C7
Dodger Blue4	#153E7E
Steel Blue4	#2B547E
Steel Blue	#4863A0
Slate Blue2	#6960EC
Violet	#8D38C9
Medium Purple3	#7A5DC7
Medium Purple	#8467D7
Medium Purple2	#9172EC
Medium Purple1	#9E7BFF
Light Steel Blue	#728FCE
Steel Blue3	#488AC7
Steel Blue2	#56A5EC
Steel Blue1	#5CB3FF
Sky Blue3	#659EC7
Sky Blue4	#41627E
Slate Blue	#737CA1
Slate Grey3	#98AFC7
Violet Red	#F6358A
Violet Red2	#E4317F
Deep Pink	#F52887
Deep Pink2	#E4287C
Deep Pink3	#C12267
Deep Pink4	#7D053F
Medium Violet Red	#CA226B
Violet Red3	#C12869
Firebrick	#800517
Violet Red4	#7D0541
Maroon4	#7D0552
Maroon	#810541
Maroon3	#C12283
Maroon2	#E3319D
Maroon1	#F535AA
Magenta	#FF00FF
Magenta1	#F433FF
Magenta2	#E238EC
Magenta3	#C031C7
Medium Orchid	#B048B5
Medium Orchid1	#D462FF
Medium Orchid2	#C45AEC
Medium Orchid3	#A74AC7
Medium Orchid4	#6A287E
Purple	#8E35EF
Purple1	#893BFF
Purple2	#7F38EC
Purple3	#6C2DC7
Purple4	#461B7E
Dark Orchid4	#571B7E
Dark Orchid	#7D1B7E
Dark Violet	#842DCE
Dark Orchid3	#8B31C7
Dark Orchid2	#A23BEC
Dark Orchid1	#B041FF
Plum4	#7E587E
Pale Violet Red	#D16587
Pale Violet Red1	#F778A1
Pale Violet Red2	#E56E94
Pale Violet Red3	#C25A7C
Pale Violet Red4	#7E354D
Plum	#B93B8F
Plum1	#F9B7FF
Plum2	#E6A9EC
Plum3	#C38EC7
Thistle	#D2B9D3
Thistle3	#C6AEC7
Lavendar Blush2	#EBDDE2
Lavendar Blush3	#C8BBBE
Thistle2	#E9CFEC
Thistle1	#FCDFFF
Lavendar	#E3E4FA
Lavendar Blush	#FDEEF4
Light Steel Blue1	#C6DEFF
Light Blue	#ADDFFF
Light Blue1	#BDEDFF
Light Cyan	#E0FFFF
Slate Grey1	#C2DFFF
Slate Grey2	#B4CFEC
Light Steel Blue2	#B7CEEC
Turquoise1	#52F3FF
Cyan	#00FFFF
Cyan1	#57FEFF
Cyan2	#50EBEC
Turquoise2	#4EE2EC
Medium Turquoise	#48CCCD
Turquoise	#43C6DB
Dark Slate Grey1	#9AFEFF
Dark Slate Grey2	#8EEBEC
Dark Slate Grey3	#78C7C7
Cyan3	#46C7C7
Turquoise3	#43BFC7
Cadet Blue3	#77BFC7
Pale Turquoise3	#92C7C7
Light Blue2	#AFDCEC
Dark Turquoise	#3B9C9C
Cyan4	#307D7E
Light Sea Green	#3EA99F
Light Sky Blue	#82CAFA
Light Sky Blue2	#A0CFEC
Light Sky Blue3	#87AFC7
Sky Blue	#82CAFF
Sky Blue2	#B0E2FF
Light Sky Blue4	#566D7E
Sky Blue	#6698FF
Light Slate Blue	#736AFF
Light Cyan2	#CFECEC
Light Cyan3	#AFC7C7
Light Cyan4	#717D7D
Light Blue3	#95B9C7
Light Blue4	#5E767E
Pale Turquoise4	#5E7D7E
Dark Sea Green4	#617C58
Medium Aquamarine	#348781
Medium Sea Green	#306754
Sea Green	#4E8975
Dark Green	#254117
Sea Green4	#387C44
Forest Green	#4E9258
Medium Forest Green	#347235
Spring Green4	#347C2C
Dark Olive Green4	#667C26
Chartreuse4	#437C17
Green4	#347C17
Medium Spring Green	#348017
Spring Green	#4AA02C
Lime Green	#41A317
Spring Green	#4AA02C
Dark Sea Green	#8BB381
Dark Sea Green3	#99C68E
Green3	#4CC417
Chartreuse3	#6CC417
Yellow Green	#52D017
Spring Green3	#4CC552
Sea Green3	#54C571
Spring Green2	#57E964
Spring Green1	#5EFB6E
Sea Green2	#64E986
Sea Green1	#6AFB92
Dark Sea Green2	#B5EAAA
Dark Sea Green1	#C3FDB8
Green	#00FF00
Lawn Green	#87F717
Green1	#5FFB17
Green2	#59E817
Chartreuse2	#7FE817
Chartreuse	#8AFB17
Green Yellow	#B1FB17
Dark Olive Green1	#CCFB5D
Dark Olive Green2	#BCE954
Dark Olive Green3	#A0C544
Yellow	#FFFF00
Yellow1	#FFFC17
Khaki1	#FFF380
Khaki2	#EDE275
Goldenrod	#EDDA74
Gold2	#EAC117
Gold1	#FDD017
Goldenrod1	#FBB917
Goldenrod2	#E9AB17
Gold	#D4A017
Gold3	#C7A317
Goldenrod3	#C68E17
Dark Goldenrod	#AF7817
Khaki	#ADA96E
Khaki3	#C9BE62
Khaki4	#827839
Dark Goldenrod1	#FBB117
Dark Goldenrod2	#E8A317
Dark Goldenrod3	#C58917
Sienna1	#F87431
Sienna2	#E66C2C
Dark Orange	#F88017
Dark Orange1	#F87217
Dark Orange2	#E56717
Dark Orange3	#C35617
Sienna3	#C35817
Sienna	#8A4117
Sienna4	#7E3517
Indian Red4	#7E2217
Dark Orange3	#7E3117
Salmon4	#7E3817
Dark Goldenrod4	#7F5217
Gold4	#806517
Goldenrod4	#805817
Light Salmon4	#7F462C
Chocolate	#C85A17
Coral3	#C34A2C
Coral2	#E55B3C
Coral	#F76541
Dark Salmon	#E18B6B
Salmon1	#F88158
Salmon2	#E67451
Salmon3	#C36241
Light Salmon3	#C47451
Light Salmon2	#E78A61
Light Salmon	#F9966B
Sandy Brown	#EE9A4D
Hot Pink	#F660AB
Hot Pink1	#F665AB
Hot Pink2	#E45E9D
Hot Pink3	#C25283
Hot Pink4	#7D2252
Light Coral	#E77471
Indian Red1	#F75D59
Indian Red2	#E55451
Indian Red3	#C24641
Red	#FF0000
Red1	#F62217
Red2	#E41B17
Firebrick1	#F62817
Firebrick2	#E42217
Firebrick3	#C11B17
Pink	#FAAFBE
Rosy Brown1	#FBBBB9
Rosy Brown2	#E8ADAA
Pink2	#E7A1B0
Light Pink	#FAAFBA
Light Pink1	#F9A7B0
Light Pink2	#E799A3
Pink3	#C48793
Rosy Brown3	#C5908E
Rosy Brown	#B38481
Light Pink3	#C48189
Rosy Brown4	#7F5A58
Light Pink4	#7F4E52
Pink4	#7F525D
Lavendar Blush4	#817679
Light Goldenrod4	#817339
Lemon Chiffon4	#827B60
Lemon Chiffon3	#C9C299
Light Goldenrod3	#C8B560
Light Golden2	#ECD672
Light Goldenrod	#ECD872
Light Goldenrod1	#FFE87C
Lemon Chiffon2	#ECE5B6
Lemon Chiffon	#FFF8C6
Light Goldenrod Yellow	#FAF8CC

Add Video Clip to Blog

2007-08-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

Update: Blogger released a new Add Video feature which allows you to upload videos into your Blog posts. Should you want to know more about it, or resize or align the video, or put it into the sidebar, you may follow our guide in Customize Video Upload in Blogger.

This is a step-by-step guide on how to add a video or movie clip to your Blog or webpage. There are many sites that offer free video hosting. Most of them automatically generate the relevant HTML code for you to easily insert/embed into your web template or blog post. I shall start with two of the most popular providers – Google Video and YouTube.

Google Video

Create an account with Google Video using your Gmail account. After the formalities, you will see a Video Status page. Click "Upload Video."

If your file is less than 100MB, which is probably the case, use the Web-based uploader.

Insert the video title, description, genre, and language. Under “Access”, you can either choose to have the video made public or unlisted.

The “unlisted” function is rather useful. A public video is listed in the Google Video search directory, and anyone can view it. However, you may have a video which you would rather not share with everyone except your blog readers. If you had created a private blog accessible only by your family and friends, you would all the more want to unlist your video.

In case you are wondering, an “unlisted” video enjoys the same features of a public video. It can be embedded in web pages, emailed, or linked to from other public sites.

After you have uploaded your video, you will see a link that reads “Embed this video on your website or blog.” Click on that and copy (Ctrl-C) this code to paste into your post. Your code should look something like this.

<embed style="width:400px; height:326px;" id="VideoPlayback" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf? docId=-6608265653837650172&hl=en" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" scale="noScale" salign="TL" FlashVars="playerMode=embedded"> </embed>

If you would like, you can change the width and the height of the video screen so as to have it fit neatly into your page. I have created an account and uploaded a sample video just to let you see how it will look on your site. The video screen you see below has a width of 300px and height of 245px.

YouTube

You would have heard of this popular video-sharing platform. Although Google has now acquired YouTube, it does not appear to be the end of Google Video. If you do not have an account at YouTube, sign up for a free account. For first-time users, you would need to confirm your email by following the instructions that YouTube sends to your email account. After confirmation, you will be able to upload your videos.

In YouTube, you assign tags to your video to enable it to be easily found by viewers through their search function. At the second step, select “public” viewing.

When you are at the screen shown below, you will see towards the bottom an option for you to “allow external sites to embed and play the video.” Check that box. Copy (Ctrl-C) the generated HTML code and insert it into your post.

Should you want your video to be a permanent feature of your site layout, you can create a video widget. For instance, if you would like to have a video in your sidebar, login to your Dashboard, go to Template-> Page Elements. Add a “Page Element” and select “HTML/JavaScript”. Paste the generated HTML code and save. (Note: Whenever you create any new page element, it will always appear at the top of all the other elements. If you want it near the bottom, simply drag and drop it to the desired location.)

Your HTML code will look like this.

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/ v/QjA5faZF1A8"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QjA5faZF1A8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

Again, you can change the width and the height of the video screen if you'd like. For the purpose of this guide, I have used one of my favorite YouTube videos, a hugely popular clip of an electric guitar version of Pachelbel's Canon in D. The video screen has been reduced to a width of 300px and height of 245px.

Other video host sites

The other video hosts you might want to check out are:-

1. Yahoo Videos which is increasingly popular. Its interface resembles Google Video and you should find it easy to use.

2. Live Video, a new YouTube clone but with innovative features such as Digg-like voting by its users, customizable profile pages, and backgrounds to go with your videos.

3. Grouper which incorporates a desktop software for you to edit your videos before uploading them to the site.

4. Metacafe, iFilm, Motionbox, and Dailymotion are also popular video hosts which you can consider using.

If you need more information, enter search words like “free video share” to look at what these or other sites have to offer

Add Digg button to Blogger or Blogspot

2007-08-29T11:30:00.000-07:00

Automatic Count and Vote Button

This is a step-by-step guide to automatically place a real-time Digg count and vote button to every single blog post. Digg is a social content website where your readers or you can submit content to. If you have a good story, members will 'digg' the post and write comments. As a blog owner, you may want to make it easy for and encourage your readers to submit and digg your articles.

Before you do that though, you would want to take note of the following:-

1. Your blog should be set to save Post Pages. Post Pages are archived blog posts published to their own web page. Each post will have a unique URL, which is required by Digg for the individual posts to be submitted. To verify or enable it, login to your Blogger Dashboard. Under Settings-> Archiving, set the “Enable Post Pages?” to “Yes” and save the settings.

2. This template hack will put a Digg button to every post. You are therefore not able to choose which post you want to include or exclude a button. If you would prefer to have a Digg button added only to some posts, read the later part of this article on “Button for selective posts.”

3. The code reads the URL of the individual blog page and this shall be the URL used for submission of the story to Digg.

Under “Template”, click the “Edit HTML” tab. Block copy the entire HTML code for your site and save it in a text file. This is one of the two necessary steps whenever you want to change the template. The second step is of course to “Preview” the new changes, and save the changes only when you are satisfied. The backup you have saved in a text file will come in handy when you accidentally click to save the changes without previewing them. With a backup, you can easily restore the template to the prior state if need be.

Click the box next to “Expand Widget Templates”. Scroll about two-thirds down the template to look for the code that reads:-

<p><data:post.body/></p>

If you want the button to show at the top right corner of your post, replace the above code with this.

<div style='float:left; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div> <p><data:post.body/></p>

This is what you get:-

If you would like the button to appear at the end of your post, replace with this following code instead.

<p><data:post.body/></p> <div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div>

The result will be this:-

If you want to have the button at the top left corner of your post, change the alignment.

<div style='float:left; margin-right:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div> <p><data:post.body/></p>

The outcome is this:-

Digg has another compact button. If you insert this code:-

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; digg_skin="compact"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div> <p><data:post.body/></p>

You will see a compact Digg count button like this:-

You can also change the background color of the button to blend with your site. For example, a code like this:-

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; digg_bgcolor="#BDEDFF"; digg_skin="compact"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div> <p><data:post.body/></p>

will give you this:-

You can insert the color code of your choice into the red portion. For a list of color values to insert, you may refer to the Hexadecimal HTML color code list.

Automatic Count Button in Blog Footer

[Update] This segment is added in response to user's request to have the Digg button in the Blog footer, i.e., after the labels. If you scroll through your template, you will see this chunk of code which gives the labels in your Blog footer.

<p class='post-footer-line post-footer-line-2'> <span class='post-labels'> <b:if cond='data:post.labels'> <data:postLabelsLabel/> <b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'> <a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if> </b:loop> </b:if> </span> </p>

If you want a Digg button to appear just after the labels, add the appropriate Digg button code right after the above code. For example, if you want the compact Digg button, add this code below the labels code:-

<div style='float:right; margin-left:10px;'> <script type='text/javascript'> digg_url="<data:post.url/>"; digg_skin="compact"; </script> <script src='http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js' type='text/javascript'/> </div>

The resulting layout is this:-

Move the Digg button code above the labels if you'd like. Experiment a little. Just remember to preview the template and not to save it unless you are satisfied.

Digg Button in Blog Footer

If you do not want to see an Automatic Count button, you can also place a link button into the template. This button will appear at the bottom right corner of every post and readers can click it to submit that post to Digg.

Scroll to this part of the template and insert the lines (in red):-

<div class='post-body'> <p><data:post.body/></p> <div style='clear: both;'/> <!-- clear for photos floats --> </div> <div style="float:right; margin-left:10px;"> <a expr:href='"http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=" + data:post.url + "&title=" + data:post.title' target='_blank'><img border="0" alt="Digg this" src="http://digg.com/img/badges/91x17-digg-button.gif"/></a></div>

With the code, this is what you will see at the end of every post.

You can change the position of this button. Go through what we discussed earlier in this article to understand where to place the code if you should want the button to be at the top of the article.

The button 91x17-digg-button.gif is simply an example. As the following section explains, there are many buttons you can use. To change the button to another design, replace the image URL with that of the new button.

Button for selective posts

The methods of manually adding a Digg button to selective posts are rather tedious and complicated. The problem is that Blogger does not allow you to simply insert a JavaScript into a blog post. Since this blog is targeted at the majority of us who are not computer experts, I shall suggest a method that I think is simple enough for us.

First, go to the Digg tools site to select a Digg button that you like. You will see a wide selection of Digg buttons.

Take note of the image URL. For example, the image URL of this button is

http://digg.com/img/badges/91x17-digg-button.gif

Write a post and publish it. Next, refresh the page and click on the title of your post. This will bring you to the post page. Take note of the new URL of your story. Insert it into the orange portion of this HTML code. If you want a different image, insert the image URL into the blue portion of the code.

<a href="http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=URLofyourstory" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Digg my article" src="http://digg.com/img/badges/91x17-digg-button.gif"/></a>

Now, go back to your article and Edit it. Choose the “Edit HTML” mode and not “Compose” mode. Copy the above code and paste it into whichever part of your blog article. “Preview” it, and if you are happy with it, “Publish” it.

Add Music to Blogspot blog

2007-08-29T11:25:00.000-07:00

This article is updated to address the difference in the way the code is interpreted by the different browsers, namely Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. We have also included a sample music file which you can use to test the effects of adding the sound file to your Blog.

“Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below.” ... Joseph Addison

Depending on the subject matter of your blog, having music played in the background may either enhance the pleasure of reading or annoy your visitor. Imagine the agony of surfing the web in discreet, only to catch the attention of your office colleagues or parents when the music automatically blasts off in the background. Not to mention, a big music file may cause a slower page download. Nevertheless, the solution, as shall be explained later, is simple - have an option for the reader to play or stop the music.

To begin, you will need to have a music file uploaded onto a server. You can read about using free hosts like Google Page Creator and Google Groups. We have also a rather comprehensive list of free Image Hosts and File Hosting Services in our article on Manage Blogger Image Storage Space. Check out those sites and choose one that is fast, reliable and enables hotlinking to the uploaded files. Upon uploading, note down the URL of the file.

Alternatively, there are several sites that offer free download of their music files. You can enter search words like “free music download” or search for a popular artist name in the Google search box. Most of the sites that offer free download will lead you to the file location stored in their servers. Copy the URL of the music file that you have chosen.

If you would like to hear how the music works on your Blog, you can also use this music file which we have uploaded onto Google Pages - http://ownlblog.googlepages.com/BalladePourAdeline.mid - whenever you are prompted to enter the “URL of music file”. This file is for testing purposes only. Please do not link permanently to this file as it may be changed or deleted in due course.

Next, you would have to decide how you want the music to be played.

Link for reader to click

This is a text link. Your visitor can click the link if he wants to hear the music.

<a href="URL of music file">Click to hear music file</a>

Remember to enter the URL of music file into the above code. This code can be inserted into your Blog post. If you want to put it in your sidebar, you can go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element, select HTML/JavaScript and insert the code. Whatever words you type into the “Click to hear music file” will appear as the text link.

Music with a console

A music player console with controls of the volume, on and off buttons, would give your visitors a choice on how he wants the music played. With the code stated below, the music will not play unless the visitor clicks the play button.

You can either insert the music console into your Blog post or your sidebar. If you want it in the sidebar, go to Template -> Page Elements -> Add a Page Element, select HTML/JavaScript.

The code to insert is this:-

<embed autostart="false" height="40" loop="true" playcount="2" src="URL of music file" width="300"/></embed>

For instance, using the following code:-

<embed autostart="false" height="40" loop="true" src="http://ownlblog.googlepages.com/BalladePourAdeline.mid" width="300"/></embed>

this is what you see:-

It will look different in IE and Firefox, depending on the installed plugins.

Note the following attributes and how they work on different browsers:-

1. Insert your URL of music file into the code.

2. The width of the example you see above is "300". If you want it to be embedded neatly into your sidebar, the width should not be greater than the sidebar width. For example, if your sidebar width is 150px, the width of your console should be about 140px.

3. The height would depend on your preference and space constraints.

4. The autostart attribute has two options. If you choose "true", the music will automatically play when your page is loaded. As I have mentioned earlier, this is not a good option unless you are absolutely sure all your visitors would not mind the music. The better option is to state it as "false". If the visitor wishes to hear the music, he can click the play button to start the music.

Note, however, that while it works fine in Internet Explorer, it may not be so in Mozilla Firefox. The default setting for IE is "false" which means the music will not play automatically. The default setting for Firefox is "true", and when we experimented with .wma and .wav files, they automatically played even when we set the autostart to "false". If you are working on the Mac, the default setting for both browsers is "false".

5. The loop attribute indicates whether the music should stop once that particular tune ends. The common attributes are "false" or "true". If the attribute is "false", the music ends after it is played once. If it is "true", the music will automatically loop and continue playing until the visitor clicks the stop button or leaves your site. For short music pieces, you may want it to repeat and choose "true".

For certain versions of Netscape browsers, another attribute that might work is loop="n" where n is a number. If n is 2 for example, the music will play twice and stop. The similar attribute in Internet Explorer is playcount.

6. You can specify the number of times the music is to be played. In the above example, where playcount="2", the same piece of music is played twice before it stops. If you want the music to be played once, you can delete playcount altogether. Note that this only works in Internet Explorer.

Background music to play automatically

For the music to play the moment your page is loaded, the code will have to appear in the HTML document of your site. Note that in so doing, there are no controls for the visitor to choose whether or not to listen to the music, nor options to turn it off. Login to your Dashboard and under “Template”, click “Edit HTML”. Somewhere near the top, after the word <Head>, insert this code:-

<embed autostart="true" height="0" loop="true" src="URL of music file" width="0"/></embed>

Remember to insert the URL of music file into the code. There is no image of a console and readers cannot choose to turn off the music. Use this option with discretion.

Troubleshooting

The sound files can be in any format provided that your browser has the necessary plugin to play that file. Many people have problems playing MP3 files because their Firefox browsers do not have the necessary plugins. To check what your Firefox browser can support, enter this command into your browser:-

about:plugins

It will list all the installed plugins and the media files that can be played. If you need additional Mozilla Firefox add-ons, you can visit their Add-ons Page.

Further reading:

Keyboard Shortcuts

2007-08-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

When speed counts, the keyboard is still king. Almost all the actions and commands you can perform with a mouse you can perform faster using combinations of keys on your keyboard. These simple keyboard shortcuts can get you where you want to go faster than several clicks of a mouse. You'll work faster on spreadsheets and similar documents, too, because you won't lose your place switching back and forth between mouse and keys.

Here are some of the most useful keyboard shortcuts:

Copy. CTRL+C
Cut. CTRL+X
Paste. CTRL+V
Undo. CTRL+Z
Delete. DELETE

Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin. SHIFT+DELETE
Copy selected item. CTRL while dragging an item
Create shortcut to selected item. CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item
Rename selected item. F2
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word. CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word. CTRL+LEFT ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph. CTRL+DOWN ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph. CTRL+UP ARROW
Highlight a block of text. CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys
Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text within a document. SHIFT with any of the arrow keys
Select all. CTRL+A
Search for a file or folder. F3
View properties for the selected item. ALT+ENTER
Close the active item, or quit the active program. ALT+F4
Opens the shortcut menu for the active window. ALT+SPACEBAR
Close the active document in programs that allow you to have multiple documents open simultaneously. CTRL+F4
Switch between open items. ALT+TAB
Cycle through items in the order they were opened. ALT+ESC
Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop. F6
Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer. F4
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item. SHIFT+F10
Display the System menu for the active window. ALT+SPACEBAR
Display the Start menu. CTRL+ESC
Display the corresponding menu. ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name
Carry out the corresponding command. Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu
Activate the menu bar in the active program. F10
Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu. RIGHT ARROW
Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu. LEFT ARROW
Refresh the active window. F5
View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer. BACKSPACE
Cancel the current task. ESC
SHIFT when you insert a CD into the CD-ROM drive Prevent the CD from automatically playing.

Use these keyboard shortcuts for dialog boxes:

Move forward through tabs. CTRL+TAB
Move backward through tabs. CTRL+SHIFT+TAB
Move forward through options. TAB
Move backward through options. SHIFT+TAB
Carry out the corresponding command or select the corresponding option. ALT+Underlined letter
Carry out the command for the active option or button. ENTER
Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box. SPACEBAR
Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons. Arrow keys
Display Help. F1
Display the items in the active list. F4
Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box. BACKSPACE

If you have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, or any other compatible keyboard that includes the Windows logo key and the Application key , you can use these keyboard shortcuts:

Display or hide the Start menu.
Display the System Properties dialog box. +BREAK
Show the desktop. +D
Minimize all windows. +M
Restores minimized windows. +Shift+M
Open My Computer. +E
Search for a file or folder. +F
Search for computers. CTRL+ +F
Display Windows Help. +F1
Lock your computer if you are connected to a network domain, or switch users if you are not connected to a network domain. + L
Open the Run dialog box. +R
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item.
Open Utility Manager. +U

Helpful accessibility keyboard shortcuts:

Switch FilterKeys on and off. Right SHIFT for eight seconds
Switch High Contrast on and off. Left ALT +left SHIFT +PRINT SCREEN
Switch MouseKeys on and off. Left ALT +left SHIFT +NUM LOCK
Switch StickyKeys on and off. SHIFT five times
Switch ToggleKeys on and off. NUM LOCK for five seconds
Open Utility Manager. +U

Keyboard shortcuts you can use with Windows Explorer:

Display the bottom of the active window. END
Display the top of the active window. HOME
Display all subfolders under the selected folder. NUM LOCK+ASTERISK on numeric keypad (*)
Display the contents of the selected folder. NUM LOCK+PLUS SIGN on numeric keypad (+)
Collapse the selected folder. NUM LOCK+MINUS SIGN on numeric keypad (-)
Collapse current selection if it's expanded, or select parent folder. LEFT ARROW
Display current selection if it's collapsed, or select first subfolder. RIGHT ARROW

How To Turn On Your Pc In 10 Seconds

2007-08-28T11:22:00.001-07:00

Alright so u want know how to turn the pc on in 10 seconds?? Heres what u have to do

Click on the start button then press R it will take u to Run well go to run
n type Regedit
press enter
this will open Registery Editor
now look for the key

HKEY_LOACAL_MECHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Contr ol\ContentIndex

now there find the Key Called
"Startup Delay"
Double Click On It
Now where its Base
Click Decimal
Now its Default Value Is 4800000
Change The Value To 40000
here u go u have done it
now close the Registery Editor and Restart Your Computer
You'll See The Result
Comments Apriciated

Windows XP: The Complete Guide !

2007-08-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only). An alternative is to press SHIFT-DEL.

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can make it show everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be the software and you can now uninstall it.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than many ISPs have, so you problably can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system. (Professional Edition only)

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can change things back by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your friend's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might go insane before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

20. Windows XP secretly KNOWS that the average user has no idea what they are doing. Therefore, it doesn't let you do really stupid things like deleting the windows directory (at least not without spending several hours convincing it that you REALLY want to do this). Oh yeah, and internet explorer kinda sucks, get Firefox.

Windows Shortcuts

2007-08-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

Run Commands:

compmgmt.msc - Computer management
devmgmt.msc - Device manager
diskmgmt.msc - Disk management
dfrg.msc - Disk defrag
eventvwr.msc - Event viewer
fsmgmt.msc - Shared folders
gpedit.msc - Group policies
lusrmgr.msc - Local users and groups
perfmon.msc - Performance monitor
rsop.msc - Resultant set of policies
secpol.msc - Local security settings
services.msc - Various Services
msconfig - System Configuration Utility
regedit - Registry Editor
msinfo32 _ System Information
sysedit _ System Edit
win.ini _ windows loading information(also system.ini)
winver _ Shows current version of windows
mailto: _ Opens default email client
command _ Opens command prompt

Run Commands to access the control panel

Add/Remove Programs - control appwiz.cpl
Date/Time Properties - control timedate.cpl
Display Properties - control desk.cpl
FindFast - control findfast.cpl
Fonts Folder - control fonts
Internet Properties - control inetcpl.cpl
Keyboard Properties - control main.cpl keyboard
Mouse Properties - control main.cpl
Multimedia Properties - control mmsys.cpl
Network Properties - control netcpl.cpl
Password Properties - control password.cpl
Printers Folder - control printers
Sound Properties - control mmsys.cpl sounds
System Properties - control sysdm.cpl

Command Prompt:

ANSI.SYS Defines functions that change display graphics, control cursor movement, and reassign keys.
APPEND Causes MS-DOS to look in other directories when editing a file or running a command.
ARP Displays, adds, and removes arp information from network devices.
ASSIGN Assign a drive letter to an alternate letter.
ASSOC View the file associations.
AT Schedule a time to execute commands or programs.
ATMADM Lists connections and addresses seen by Windows ATM call manager.
ATTRIB Display and change file attributes.
BATCH Recovery console command that executes a series of commands in a file.
BOOTCFG Recovery console command that allows a user to view, modify, and rebuild the boot.ini
BREAK Enable / disable CTRL + C feature.
CACLS View and modify file ACL's.
CALL Calls a batch file from another batch file.
CD Changes directories.
CHCP Supplement the International keyboard and character set information.
CHDIR Changes directories.
CHKDSK Check the hard disk drive running FAT for errors.
CHKNTFS Check the hard disk drive running NTFS for errors.
CHOICE Specify a listing of multiple options within a batch file.
CLS Clears the screen.
CMD Opens the command interpreter.
COLOR Easily change the foreground and background color of the MS-DOS window.
COMP Compares files.
COMPACT Compresses and uncompress files.
CONTROL Open control panel icons from the MS-DOS prompt.
CONVERT Convert FAT to NTFS.
COPY Copy one or more files to an alternate location.
CTTY Change the computers input/output devices.
DATE View or change the systems date.
DEBUG Debug utility to create assembly programs to modify hardware settings.
DEFRAG Re-arrange the hard disk drive to help with loading programs.
DEL Deletes one or more files.
DELETE Recovery console command that deletes a file.
DELTREE Deletes one or more files and/or directories.
DIR List the contents of one or more directory.
DISABLE Recovery console command that disables Windows system services or drivers.
DISKCOMP Compare a disk with another disk.
DISKCOPY Copy the contents of one disk and place them on another disk.
DOSKEY Command to view and execute commands that have been run in the past.
DOSSHELL A GUI to help with early MS-DOS users.
DRIVPARM Enables overwrite of original device drivers.
ECHO Displays messages and enables and disables echo.
EDIT View and edit files.
EDLIN View and edit files.
EMM386 Load extended Memory Manager.
ENABLE Recovery console command to enable a disable service or driver.
ENDLOCAL Stops the localization of the environment changes enabled by the setlocal command.
ERASE Erase files from computer.
EXIT Exit from the command interpreter.
EXPAND Expand a M*cros*ft Windows file back to it's original format.
EXTRACT Extract files from the M*cros*ft Windows cabinets.
FASTHELP Displays a listing of MS-DOS commands and information about them.
FC Compare files.
FDISK Utility used to create partitions on the hard disk drive.
FIND Search for text within a file.
FINDSTR Searches for a string of text within a file.
FIXBOOT Writes a new boot sector.
FIXMBR Writes a new boot record to a disk drive.
FOR Boolean used in batch files.
FORMAT Command to erase and prepare a disk drive.
FTP Command to connect and operate on a FTP server.
FTYPE Displays or modifies file types used in file extension associations.
GOTO Moves a batch file to a specific label or location.
GRAFTABL Show extended characters in graphics mode.
HELP Display a listing of commands and brief explanation.
IF Allows for batch files to perform conditional processing.
IFSHLP.SYS 32-bit file manager.
IPCONFIG Network command to view network adapter settings and assigned values.
KEYB Change layout of keyboard.
LABEL Change the label of a disk drive.
LH Load a device driver in to high memory.
LISTSVC Recovery console command that displays the services and drivers.
LOADFIX Load a program above the first 64k.
LOADHIGH Load a device driver in to high memory.
LOCK Lock the hard disk drive.
LOGON Recovery console command to list installations and enable administrator login.
MAP Displays the device name of a drive.
MD Command to create a new directory.
MEM Display memory on system.
MKDIR Command to create a new directory.
MODE Modify the port or display settings.
MORE Display one page at a time.
MOVE Move one or more files from one directory to another directory.
MSAV Early M*cros*ft Virus scanner.
MSD Diagnostics utility.
MSCDEX Utility used to load and provide access to the CD-ROM.
NBTSTAT Displays protocol statistics and current TCP/IP connections using NBT
NET Update, fix, or view the network or network settings
NETSH Configure dynamic and static network information from MS-DOS.
NETSTAT Display the TCP/IP network protocol statistics and information.
NLSFUNC Load country specific information.
NSLOOKUP Look up an IP address of a domain or host on a network.
PATH View and modify the computers path location.
PATHPING View and locate locations of network latency.
PAUSE Command used in batch files to stop the processing of a command.
PING Test / send information to another network computer or network device.
POPD Changes to the directory or network path stored by the pushd command.
POWER Conserve power with computer portables.
PRINT Prints data to a printer port.
PROMPT View and change the MS-DOS prompt.
PUSHD Stores a directory or network path in memory so it can be returned to at any time.
QBASIC Open the QBasic.
RD Removes an empty directory.
REN Renames a file or directory.
RENAME Renames a file or directory.
RMDIR Removes an empty directory.
ROUTE View and configure windows network route tables.
RUNAS Enables a user to execute a program on another computer.
SCANDISK Run the scandisk utility.
SCANREG Scan registry and recover registry from errors.
SET Change one variable or string to another.
SETLOCAL Enables local environments to be changed without affecting anything else.
SETVER Change MS-DOS version to trick older MS-DOS programs.
SHARE Installs support for file sharing and locking capabilities.
SHIFT Changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch program.
SHUTDOWN Shutdown the computer from the MS-DOS prompt.
SMARTDRV Create a disk cache in conventional memory or extended memory.
SORT Sorts the input and displays the output to the screen.
START Start a separate window in Windows from the MS-DOS prompt.
SUBST Substitute a folder on your computer for another drive letter.
SWITCHES Remove add functions from MS-DOS.
SYS Transfer system files to disk drive.
TELNET Telnet to another computer / device from the prompt.
TIME View or modify the system time.
TITLE Change the title of their MS-DOS window.
TRACERT Visually view a network packets route across a network.
TREE View a visual tree of the hard disk drive.
TYPE Display the contents of a file.
UNDELETE Undelete a file that has been deleted.
UNFORMAT Unformat a hard disk drive.
UNLOCK Unlock a disk drive.
VER Display the version information.
VERIFY Enables or disables the feature to determine if files have been written properly.
VOL Displays the volume information about the designated drive.
XCOPY Copy multiple files, directories, and/or drives from one location to another.
TRUENAME When placed before a file, will display the whole directory in which it exists
TASKKILL It allows you to kill those unneeded or locked up applications

Windows XP Shortcuts:

ALT+- (ALT+hyphen) Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window's System menu
ALT+ENTER View properties for the selected item
ALT+ESC Cycle through items in the order they were opened
ALT+F4 Close the active item, or quit the active program
ALT+SPACEBAR Display the System menu for the active window
ALT+TAB Switch between open items
ALT+Underlined letter Display the corresponding menu
BACKSPACE View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer
CTRL+A Select all
CTRL+B Bold
CTRL+C Copy
CTRL+I Italics
CTRL+O Open an item
CTRL+U Underline
CTRL+V Paste
CTRL+X Cut
CTRL+Z Undo
CTRL+F4 Close the active document
CTRL while dragging Copy selected item
CTRL+SHIFT while dragging Create shortcut to selected iteM
CTRL+RIGHT ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word
CTRL+LEFT ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word
CTRL+DOWN ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph
CTRL+UP ARROW Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph
SHIFT+DELETE Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin
ESC Cancel the current task
F1 Displays Help
F2 Rename selected item
F3 Search for a file or folder
F4 Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer
F5 Refresh the active window
F6 Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop
F10 Activate the menu bar in the active program
SHIFT+F10 Display the shortcut menu for the selected item
CTRL+ESC Display the Start menu
SHIFT+CTRL+ESC Launches Task Manager
SHIFT when you insert a CD Prevent the CD from automatically playing
WIN Display or hide the Start menu
WIN+BREAK Display the System Properties dialog box
WIN+D Minimizes all Windows and shows the Desktop
WIN+E Open Windows Explorer
WIN+F Search for a file or folder
WIN+F+CTRL Search for computers
WIN+L Locks the desktop
WIN+M Minimize or restore all windows
WIN+R Open the Run dialog box
WIN+TAB Switch between open items

Windows Explorer Shortcuts:

ALT+SPACEBAR - Display the current window’s system menu
SHIFT+F10 - Display the item's context menu
CTRL+ESC - Display the Start menu
ALT+TAB - Switch to the window you last used
ALT+F4 - Close the current window or quit
CTRL+A - Select all items
CTRL+X - Cut selected item(s)
CTRL+C - Copy selected item(s)
CTRL+V - Paste item(s)
CTRL+Z - Undo last action
CTRL+(+) - Automatically resize the columns in the right hand pane
TAB - Move forward through options
ALT+RIGHT ARROW - Move forward to a previous view
ALT+LEFT ARROW - Move backward to a previous view
SHIFT+DELETE - Delete an item immediately
BACKSPACE - View the folder one level up
ALT+ENTER - View an item’s properties
F10 - Activate the menu bar in programs
F6 - Switch between left and right panes
F5 - Refresh window contents
F3 - Display Find application
F2 - Rename selected item

Internet Explorer Shortcuts:

CTRL+A - Select all items on the current page
CTRL+D - Add the current page to your Favorites
CTRL+E - Open the Search bar
CTRL+F - Find on this page
CTRL+H - Open the History bar
CTRL+I - Open the Favorites bar
CTRL+N - Open a new window
CTRL+O - Go to a new location
CTRL+P - Print the current page or active frame
CTRL+S - Save the current page
CTRL+W - Close current browser window
CTRL+ENTER - Adds the http://www. (url) .com
SHIFT+CLICK - Open link in new window
BACKSPACE - Go to the previous page
ALT+HOME - Go to your Home page
HOME - Move to the beginning of a document
TAB - Move forward through items on a page
END - Move to the end of a document
ESC - Stop downloading a page
F11 - Toggle full-screen view
F5 - Refresh the current page
F4 - Display list of typed addresses
F6 - Change Address bar and page focus
ALT+RIGHT ARROW - Go to the next page
SHIFT+CTRL+TAB - Move back between frames
SHIFT+F10 - Display a shortcut menu for a link
SHIFT+TAB - Move back through the items on a page
CTRL+TAB - Move forward between frames
CTRL+C - Copy selected items to the clipboard
CTRL+V - Insert contents of the clipboard
ENTER - Activate a selected link
HOME - Move to the beginning of a document
END - Move to the end of a document
F1 - Display Internet Explorer Help

Lost your Windows password? Here’s what you can do to get around

2007-08-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Due to the security features built into Windows XP, it is virtually impossible to get back into the system without the password.

You have several options to try and get around this problem.

If you have access to another user account with administrator rights, you can use that account to change the password of the account that is locked out. You can also use the default Administrator account that is built into Windows XP.

First you need to boot the system into Safe Mode.

Restart your system.
When you see the blue screen, press the ( F8 ) key about 3 times a second.
You should get the Windows startup menu. Use the (Up or Down) arrow keys to highlight (SafeMode).
Press (Enter) on (Safe Mode), then press (Enter) on (Windows XP).
The system should boot to Safe Mode.

Once you are at the Account Log on Screen, click on the icon for the user account with administrator rights, or click on the icon for the administrators account.

Note: For Home the Administrator account isn’t normally shown & in Safe Mode you have to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys twice to show. For PRO you can do this in normal mode

When the system has booted to the desktop, use the following steps to change the accounts password.

Click Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools.
Click Computer Management.
Double click Local Users and Groups, double click the folder Users.
Right click on the account name that is locked out, and click on Set Password.
You may get a warning message about changing the password, simply click proceed.
Leave the New Password box blank, also leave the Confirm Password box blank.
Click OK, and OK again.
Then close all Windows, reboot the system and try to log in.

There are also applications that can recover the password for you.

If the above information does not help in recovering the password, the only option left is to format the hard drive then reinstall Windows and the system software.

8 Windows XP Tips & Tricks

2007-08-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

Delete Files Immediately
This will allow you to delete files from your system without sending them to the recycle bin first.
Select Start > Run… type gpedit.msc then select User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Explorer then locate the ‘Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin‘ setting and set it.

Faster Start Menu Appearance
Ever wondered why it takes the start menu a few seconds to appear when you click on it? To speed it up, go to Start > Run… Type regedit then navigate to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay section and change the value from 400 to 0.
Disable Unneeded Startup Services
Disabling these services will not only make your machine a little safer, but will speed things up a bit. To disable services, go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services and disable the following:
- Alerter
- Clipbook
- Human Interface Access Devices
- Indexing Service
- Messenger
- Net Logon
- Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
- Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
- Remote Procedure Call Locator
- Remote Registry
- Routing & Remote Access
- SSDP Discovery Service
- TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
- Telnet
- Upload Manager
- Windows Time
- Wireless Zero Configuration
Turning Off The Welcome Screen
Navigate to the Control Panel and select User Accounts then select the option that says Change the way users log on or off.
Speed Up Shared File Viewing across Network
Machines have been known to have a bit of a delay when ever trying to view files shared across a network, due to the fact that Windows is taking the extra time to search and see if the networked computer has any Scheduled Tasks. To prevent Windows from searching for scheduled tasks on a remote computer click Start > Run… Type regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace and delete the key {D62277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
Speed Up Shutdown Process
Many times, the shutdown process takes a while due to the fact that Windows is trying to clear the Page File. To stop Windows from clearing the Page File on shutdown click Start > Run… type regedit navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\ClearPageFileAtShutdown and set the value to 0.
Add Your Own Folders To The Send To Menu
Having your own folders in the Send To menu can be a big help. This way, when you right click on something and select Send To you can choose to send it to your very own special folder. To do this navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\username\SendTo\ and simply add your own shortcuts to what ever folders you want to appear.
Launch Any Program From The Run Dialog
We’ve been running applications like regedit by going to Start > Run. Now what if we could launch any application by doing this. We can! To do so, we need to once again, go to Start > Run… and type regedit. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\App Paths and 1) Add a subkey of the file name you wish to use. For example, Photoshop.exe. Set the default value’s data to the full path of the application. For example, C:\Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop\Photoshop.exe. 2) Create a string value named Path that contains only the path. For example, C:\Progarm Files\Adobe\Photoshop\.

Registry Hacks

2007-08-28T10:52:00.001-07:00

Editing the Windows Registry, while much more common now than in years past, is still not to be entered into lightly. You can break Windows, cause boot failure, yada, yada. I know you're gonna do it anyway; why else would you be reading this. Just be careful, OK?

These are few because, for the most part WinXP can be customized through the interlace or with third-party freeware (as above).

All of the tips below require running regedit. To do so, hit 'Start/Run' then type 'regedit' and follow the instructions.

Naturally, I take no responsibility for any damage or loss of data incurred in the remote possibility that something goes terribly wrong.

Outlook Explorer Splash
If it's important enough to you to edit the registry in order to get rid of the OE splash page, here's how. With regedit open, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{long number here will vary}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0. left-click on 5.0 then right-click on a blank space in the pane on the right side. Choose 'New' DWORD and name it NSplash with a value of 1.

Unload DLLs
To prevent Windows from caching DLLs after the program using them has closed, follow this procedure: Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ then left-click on Explorer. Right-click (as above) and create the DWORD AlwaysUnloadDLL with a value of 1. This requires a reboot to take effect. This will allow memory to be used more efficiently.

Hack IE Title Bar
This can be an impressive bit of personalization. Use your name or moniker to brand Internet Explorer. Go to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ and left-click on Main to change the string "Window Title" to whatever you wish.

Encode MP3s with WiMP
Install an MP3 codec (compression/decompression, required for this operation). You can download it here. Once installed, navigate to the following string in regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Settings\ then to MP3Encoding and set the following:
"LowRate"=dword:0000dac0
"MediumRate"=dword:0001f400
"MediumHighRate"=dword:0003e800
"HighRate"=dword:0004e200
After reboot, you'll be in the MP3 business without third-party software.

Removing invalid entries from Add or Remove Programs

2007-08-28T10:50:00.001-07:00

Sometimes when you uninstall a program, corresponding entry in the Add or Remove ProgramsAdd or Remove Programs applet, follow these steps: listing may not be removed. This may be due to incomplete uninstall or poorly designed uninstaller itself. To manually remove the orphaned entries from the Click Start, Run and type regedit.exe

Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall
Backup the branch to a file

Note: Each subkey represents a program that you've installed. To determine which program that each key represents, click the key, and then view the DisplayName value data in the right pane
Select the subkey that you want to delete
Right-click on the subkey and choose Delete
Close Registry Editor
Still unable to remove an entry?

If the program was installed using Windows Installer, then you may use Windows Installer Cleanup Utility to remove the installer information for that program, and also the corresponding entry in Add or Remove programs.

XP Secrets

2007-08-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Defrag

Secret - Hidden Command Line Switch
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Run" and Type defrag c: -b to defragment the Boot and Application Prefetch information.

Notes - Windows XP will run this automatically every three days or so, during system idle periods. BootVis will evoke this when you run the "Optimize System" function. There is no need to manually run this unless you wish to immediately optimize a newly installed application's load time.

Notepad

Secret - Create a Log File
Instructions - Launch Notepad, Type .LOG on the first line, and then press Enter to move to the next line. On the File menu, click Save As, type a descriptive name for your file in the File name box, and then click OK. When you next open the file, note that the date and time have been appended to the end of the log, immediately preceding the place where new text can be added. You can use this functionality to automatically add the current date and time to each log entry.

Paint

Secret - Image Trails
Instructions - Open an image and hold down Shift then drag the image around to create an image trail.

Secret - 10x Zoom
Instructions - Open an image and select the magnifying glass icon. Left-Click exactly on the line below the 8x.

FreeCell

Secret - Instant Win
Instructions - Hold down Ctrl + Shift + F10 during game play. Then you will be asked if you want to Abort, Retry or Ignore. Choose Abort, then move any card to instantly win.

Secret - Hidden Game Modes
Instructions - In the "Game" menu choose "Select Game". Enter -1 or -2 to activate the hidden game modes.

Hearts

Secret - Show All Cards
Instructions - Edit this registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Applets\Hearts and create a new String value named ZB with a Data value of 42. Start Hearts and Press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + F12 to show all the cards.

Background - This secret is a reference to Douglas Adams' book the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. 'ZB' is the initials of the character Zaphod Beeblebrox, the Galactic President. '42' is the answer to The Ultimate Question Of Life, the Universe and Everything.

Minesweeper

Secret - Reveal Mines
Instructions - Minimize or close all running applications. Launch Minesweeper, then type xyzzy. Next hold down either shift key for one second. Now when you move the mouse cursor over a Minesweeper square you will see a tiny white pixel in the top left corner of your desktop screen. This pixel will change to black when your mouse moves over a mine. You may need to change you desktop background to a solid color other then white or black to see the pixel.

Secret - Stop Timer
Instructions - Launch Minesweeper and start a game so the timer starts counting, then press the Windows Key + D to show the desktop. Now when you select minesweeper from the taskbar you can continue playing with the timer stopped.

Pinball

Secret - Extra Balls
Instructions - Type 1max at the start of a new ball to get extra balls.

Secret - Gravity Well
Instructions - Type gmax at the start of a new game to activate the Gravity Well.

Secret - Instant Promotion
Instructions - Type rmax at the start of a new game to go up in ranks.

Secret - Skill Shot
Instructions - Launch the ball partially up the chute past the third yellow light bar so it falls back down to get 75,000 points. There are six yellow light bars that are worth a varying amount of points:

First: 15,000 points
Second: 30,000 points
Third: 75,000 points
Fourth: 30,000 points
Fifth: 15,000 points
Sixth: 7,500 points

Secret - Test Mode
Instructions - Type hidden test at the start of a new ball to activate Test Mode. No notification will be given that this is activated but you can now left-click the mouse button and drag the ball around. While in test mode press the following keys for more secrets:

H - Get a 1,000,000,000 High Score
M - Shows the amount of system memory
R - Increases your rank in game
Y - Shows the Frames/sec rate

Secret - Unlimited Balls
Instructions - Type bmax at the start of a new ball. No notification will be given that this is activated but when a ball is lost a new ball will appear from the yellow wormhole indefinitely. Once this is activated you will be unable to activate other secrets without restarting the game.

Solitaire

Secret - Instant Win
Instructions - Press Alt + Shift + 2 during game play to instantly win.

Secret - Draw single cards in a Draw Three game
Instructions - Hold down CTRL + ALT + SHIFT while drawing a new card. Instead of drawing three cards you will only draw one.

OS Secrets

Add/Remove

Secret - Hidden Uninstall Options
Instructions - Warning: Proceed at your own risk! Browse to C:\Windows\inf\ and make a backup copy of sysoc.inf. Then open the original file C:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf in notepad. Go to "Edit" and select "Replace". In "Find what:" type ,hide and in "Replace with:" type , then select "Replace All", save and close the file. Go to the "Control Panel", "Add/Remove", select "Add/Remove Windows Components". You will now see many more Windows components to uninstall. Do not remove anything with no label or that you do not recognize or fully understand what it does. Doing so can break certain functionality in Windows.

Control Panel

Secret - Hidden Control Panel Extensions
Instructions - Download and install TweakUI, launch, go to "Control Panel" and check any item not selected, then "Apply" and "OK". You will now see the hidden control panel extensions.

Device Manager

Secret - Hidden Devices
Instructions - Go to the "Control Panel", "System" icon, "Hardware" tab and select "Device Manager". Select "View" and Show hidden devices.

Secret - Phantom Devices
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Programs", "Accessories" and select "Command Prompt". At the command prompt, type "set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" and press Enter. At the command prompt, type "start devmgmt.msc" and press Enter. Select "View" and Show hidden devices. You can see devices that are not connected to the computer.

Notes - When you close the command prompt window, Windows clears the "devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1" variable that you set and prevents phantom devices from being displayed when you select "Show hidden devices".

Music

Secret - Music from the Installer
Instructions - Browse to C:\Windows\system32\oobe\images\title.wma and play.

Notes - "OOBE" stands for "Out-of-Box Experience".

Shutdown

Secret - Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down dialog
Instructions - Go to "Start", "Turn Off Computer..." and press either Shift key to change the "Stand By" button to "Hibernate".

Support Tools

Secret - Over 100 Windows XP Support Utilities are on the install CD

Instructions for Pre-SP2 users - If you do not have SP2 installed, put the original Windows XP CD in the CD-ROM Drive, run the D:\Support\Tools\setup.exe file.

Reduce/Remove the Icons in Systray near the Clock

2007-08-28T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Notification area, the Systray or just the area next the clock whatever people call it.
It is usually the place where Windows gives notification is the famous windows popup balloon but unfortunately it is also the place where most program which run at startup also is shown. And because we install many programs over a period of time what you get is a Overcrowded Notification area.

Check out how to Reduce by removing the unwanted Systray Applications.

Apart from being a eyesore, many application running at the same time slows the system down. Check out how many processes run as soon as you startup ! Click Alt + Ctrl + Del and choose the Processes Tab.

Windows have an feature in Xp where you can hide most of them :-

Right Click on Task Bar > Properties > In the Notification area > Customize

But it only hides the Icons the Processes still are running many of them checking for updates and other RAM / processing consuming activities.

We in our earlier post showed how to remove the processes and get better performance.

1) Go to Start And choose Run

2) In the Run window, type msconfig and click Ok

3) This will open the System Configuration utility window, in this click the Startup tab

Then unselect the apps you dont want to start, but make sure you can recognize the apps since stopping key windows apps can cause you PC to explode (just kiddin)

4) Almost done

You will get this Dialog box, you can either restart or choose Exit without restart.

When you do restart you will get a message

Choose Don't show this message !

and its done !

Access file faster and Clean Your Messy Desktop !

2007-08-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

If your desktop looks something like this then you NEED TO READ THIS ARTICLE !

Well the awesome screen shot of the desktop was mine until I realised the reason we have a messy desktop is it so easy to access and we go on adding stuff untill we get the annoying windows clean my desktop wizard like an unwanted House keeping knock on a cheesy motel !

Not any more....also check out a way to launch your fav programs faster than searching in start menu !

Well here is how we do it, we are going to create an alternative to desktop !

1) Create a folder which will be your alternative to desktop.

I strongly recommend that you create this Folder other than C: as a matter of fact you should not be using C: to store any personal file since if you need to format your C: all the personal file will be lost !

I am going to call this folder Quickdesk

Make it hidden (By right click properties)

2) Add quickdesk to task bar

This is best way to access the quickdesk since it will contain folders (such as Music, Movies, Photos etc)

To add Rightclick on Taskbar > Toolbars > New Toolbars
Then browse to the location where you have quickdesk. This adds a toolbar by which you can directly go to the place where you want to go.

As you start using this you will realise how productive this way is !

(Just in case you are wondering what are those folders, there are not default. These are the folders created earlier)

3) Create a shortcut of Quickdesk
You can do this by the usual method by Right - click on the folder Create short cut and then rename the Shortcut to Quickdesk.

Now to add some style choose a icon for the Shortcut By Right click > Properties > Shortcut tab > Change Icon. You can even choose a fancy one by clicking browse.

4) Copy the shortcut to Desktop

We are adding a shortcut to desktop for one main reason is access the quickdesk while Uploading or dowloading you don't have to browse for Quickdesk instead just go to desktop and click on Quickdesk icon which will take you to the Quickdesk folder.

5) Add this short cut to your Quick launch

You can add to Quick lauch by dragging the Shortcut from desktop to the quick launch.

This will be the fastest way to access the Quickdesk !
If you don't have the Quick launch toolbar than you can add that by Right clicking the taskbar > Toolbars > Quick launch

6) Copy to windows folder

Copy Quickdesk short cut to windows folder ( By default c:\windows) so that we can launch by the run (windows + R ) or start > Run

Just by typing quickdesk and clicking run will launch the folder.
You can use this method for launching folders inside the quickdesk folder.

How to Start using ?

The idea is to use shortcuts to organise the most accessed data we have. We keep our data disorganised to different reasons such as space availability, convenience etc. So while your Music might be in some folder in d: your photos in several different place !

Create folders for each type of category. Photo, Movies, Videos, Music, downloads to name a few !

Here comes the Oh yeah moment !

So assume you have songs in a folder in d:\somefolder\morefolder\thefolder\songs (even somplace on your network !)

To make it accessible fast create a shortcut on Music folder by Rightclick > New >Create shortcut

I even changed the icon of the shortcut to a much more appropriate !

Now check out how easy this is to access in the screen shot below !

Now in winamp to play it just got to desktop > Quickdesk > Music > songs shortcut !

Talking about Winamp you can even launch application like this !

We all know what pain in the neck it is to Go to start and wait till the Ram deficient CPU displays the list of programs and then search the one you want ! Keeping the shorcuts on the desktop also adds to clutter to startwith !

To add Application to Quickdesk, copy the shortcut from the desktop or program files and paste it in the :Quickdesk\programs

Now check out how east and FAST it is to launch this way !

This has completely changed the way I access the data..... Did it yours ?

Set Custom Display resolution for user in Winxp

2007-08-28T10:15:00.000-07:00

Now this one nagging feature of Win xp that when one user sets the display screen resolution it is set for all users ! For example your father may like higher resolution for reading stuff but your younger bro plays games and wants 800 x 600 , and it becomes irritating for not being able to a custom display.

Here is a simple solution :-

1) First download this - MultiRes

Don't worry its safe (tested on my crash test laptop)

This is quick resolution changer, that can change the resolution setting in one click. For most of us this should do !

But we are taking this a step further to automate the changing process as soon as the user logs in by batch files (yeah it is safe too !)
2) Download This - Changeres batch files

In this zip file you get 3 resolution settings at color depth 32 (you can edit them in notepad for the setting you want eg refresh rate / color depth etc)

Here comes the auto settings part !

3) Copy/extract the settings file wanted to the startup folder of the user

Go to C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Replace the username with the windows user name you want and paste the correct settings file.

4) Done ! Next time you login to that username the batch file will be lauched and will change the setting automatically.

To remove this just delete the file from the above mentioned folder !

Make your Xp Faster

2007-08-28T10:13:00.000-07:00

There are days that you could have bought that 1GB Ram instead of (now obsolete) 256 ! Even there are days when you could make a coffee and drink it too before that app you ran completely opened.

Now one easy solution for those day when you can do away with the fancy anim and feel of windows Xp. It may a "Plain Jane kinda" Xp but yet faster and the bottom line you will get the job done.

Step 1

Right Click on My computer and click on properties

Step 2

In the system properties dialog box choose the advanced tab then in the performance section click on settings

Step 2

Now in the performance dialog box choose the radio button "Adjust for best performance" or customize your looks by choosing the check box.

Press Ok and you will notice the difference immediately !

One more tip to run the Windows faster is to choosing the programs that automatically run at startup. At any given moment many app are running in the background without you even knowing and many run at the Sys tray (near the clock).

To find out the programs running at any given moment you can press Alt + Ctrl + Del to open te windows task manager.

Programs such as Yahoo msgnr, Download accelerator, Winamp all run at windows startuo and use up system processing.

To stop this programs to run at startup follow this:

Step 1

Click on the start button and click "Run"

Step 2

In the Run window, type msconfig and click Ok

Step 3

This will open the System Configuration utility window, in this click the Startup tab

Then unselect the apps you dont want to start, but make sure you can recognize the apps since stopping key windows apps can cause you PC to explode (just kiddin)

Click OK !

Step 4 Almost done

You will get this Dialog box, you can either restart or choose Exit without restart.

When you do restart you will get a message

Choose Don't show this message !

and its done !

Add Favicon icon to Blogger URL

2007-08-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

Have you wondered how these little icons appear next to the web addresses, like the one you see above? When you visit the sites or bookmark them, these icons will make these URLs stand out. These are “Favicons” or “Favorite Icons”.

You would first need to have an icon which you would like to use, bearing the extension .ico format. If you search your hard disk, you might find some icons which are generic. I would suggest that you create one to represent your own unique identity. There are quite a number of free icon editor software which you can download from the net.

As for myself, I went to Download.com site and downloaded a very small program called Imagicon which can transform images into .ico format. I created an image using Photoshop. You can use any image or pictures if you do not wish to create one. Next, run the program. It is rather simple to use. While you can create icons in 2 sizes – 16x16 and 32x32 – I would think a 16x16 icon is preferable since it is readable in most older browsers.

If you do not wish to download any software, you may also try creating an icon online. Just enter the keywords “online icon generator” into your Google search bar, and you should be able to find several programs that you can try.

Once you have created an icon, save it into your hard disk. The next step of attaching the icon is a little tricky. Ideally, all you need to do is to save it in the root directory of your blog site. Nevertheless, there is no way this can be done. For one, if you try to upload an icon image, Blogger will reject it. Two, any file that is uploaded will not go into the Blogger root directory.

The only method to use will be to upload the icon into some web folder, and create a link. We have also a rather comprehensive list of free Image Hosts and File Hosting Services in our article on Manage Blogger Image Storage Space. Check out those sites and choose one that is fast, reliable and allows uploading of .ico files.

Once you have done that, take note of the URL of your icon. If you are using Google Page Creator, hovering your mouse over the link, you will see that the file is stored under a directory which looks like this http://yourname.googlepages.com/iconname.ico
where “yourname” is your Gmail account name, and “iconname” is the file name. Copy this URL.

Go back to your Blogger dashboard and under the Template tab, go to “Edit HTML”. Near the top you will see a line like this:-

<title><data:blog.pageTitle/></title>

Copy and insert the following code below the above line:-

<link rel='shortcut icon' href='URL of your icon file'/>

Remember to type in the “URL of your icon file”.

Save the template. When you refresh your blog site, you should see your nice little Favicon next to the blog address.

Update:

While you can see the Favicon in Mozilla Firefox, many have problems seeing the Favicon in Internet Explorer. This is a known problem and has been a sore point with many IE users. In some versions of IE, bookmarking the site will display the Favicon. This is not necessarily so in IE7 that we are using. In fact, when we bookmarked the highly popular search engine sites, their Favicons don't show in our IE bookmarks too although they show well in Firefox. Perhaps this is one more reason to download Mozilla Firefox if you have not already done so.

Manage Blogger Image Storage Space

2007-08-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

We have uploaded a fair number of pictures and graphics onto our Blogs. However, this is nothing compared to some blogs which have hundreds and thousands of photos in their archives. As we know by now, any service, be it web host or email provider, that comes free will not allow you unlimited bandwidth or storage space. Google has a cap on its storage space too. In this article, we shall discuss how you can check and manage this Blogger storage space so that there will not be a day when you find yourself unable to load any further photos onto your Blog.

For those who are familiar with Google's Photo Software Picasa, you may know that you can use Picasa Web Albums to load photos onto your Blog. As a holder of a Google account, you can avail yourself of this service for free. Other than Blogger, there is also storage space available in your Gmail account.

Quick Check of Gmail and Picasa Web Storage Space

To have a quick look at how much of the available storage space you have used, when you are logged into your Google account, go to Google Manage Storage. It will show you the percentage of the free storage space you have used in both Gmail and Picasa Web Albums. The allocated space is 2.82GB in Gmail and 1GB in Picasa Web Albums. Since you cannot transfer the entitlement from one to the other, should you need more storage space, you've got to pay, a minimum of $20.00 per year for 6GB of extra storage space.

Manage Blogger or Picasa Web Storage Space

All the photos, pictures and images that are uploaded in Blogger Blogs go straight into Picasa Web Albums and our concern would be to manage this storage space. Go direct to Picasa Web and log in using your Google account. The home page is the “My Photos” page. You will see all your albums that are currently stored in Picasa Web. The Blog title is the name of the album and the number in brackets next to it tells you the number of images currently stored. At the bottom of the page, you can see a message in green small font which gives you an overall idea of how much storage space all your Blog images have taken up.

Click an album. You will be amazed to see some pictures that you may have uploaded onto your Blog and thought you had either removed, deleted or not used them. For instance, they may be images uploaded into draft posts or deleted posts, or images that had been wrongly uploaded. These images still reside in your account and are occupying the precious storage space. Now is the time to do some housekeeping. If you are very sure that a photo or picture has not been used and should not be there, click that picture and delete it. Note that if you had a link to this photo from your Blog posts, the link would be broken once it is deleted.

When poring through the photos, you may find some missing ones, in particular those that you had recently uploaded through your Blog posts. Refresh the Picasa Web Album page and the images will be there.

Good Housekeeping

Blogger automatically saves all your new writing as Draft posts. This may be a nice feature, but it could also lead to a pileup of draft posts. For example, you could be working on a post with uploaded images but did not publish it. You may log off and when you are back into your account, you create yet another new post, forgetting that the earlier draft post had been stored. Make it a point to visit Posting -> Edit Posts and look through the lists of stored posts. Delete the draft posts that are no longer wanted. If there is a picture uploaded into that post, there will be a message asking you if you would like to keep the picture or have it removed. Unless you have copied the image location for future use or have other posts linking to this picture, it is better to delete it. It will then be removed from your Picasa Web Album.

Free Image Hosting

If you find that your storage space is running low, instead of buying additional storage space, you can also upload your images onto third party hosts and show these images in your Blog page using Image Links. A simple search on the net for “free image hosts” will reveal many such sites.

As these are free sites, you can expect them to impose limits on their bandwidth and storage space usage. Read their terms carefully. Some of the servers are fast while others take ages. Some have nice batch upload interface while others require you to upload images one at a time. Some are established players in the market but some may be fly-by-nights. Some allow only certain types of images and yet others let you upload video and document files. Not all of them allow hotlinking to the uploaded files.

We have here a rather long list of Free Image Hosts and Free File Hosting Services that you can check out should you need to host image, video, audio or files online. Go through their terms of service and try them out if you'd like, but as a precaution, keep backups of all the files in your computer or CDs. We shall update the list over time, so feel free to bookmark this page:-

Free Image Hosts

Free File Hosts

2007-08-27T19:02:00.001-07:00

Technorati Profile

2007-08-27T19:01:00.001-07:00

Technorati Profile

5 Tips for Improving AdSense Referrals Earnings

2007-08-27T18:48:00.001-07:00

How do you get more readers to click through and sign up to referrals?

Here are five tips that I’ve used:
1. Give a Recommendation

One of the differences between the AdSense referral program and their normal advertising program is that you can actively promote and encourage readers to click your referral links. This is because you don’t get paid per click but only when the reader meets the required action. So no one is out of pocket if you encourage your readers to click or label the buttons as recommendations. In fact if you do recommend the product (genuinely) you’ll increase your chances of conversion as you’re really pre-selling the product (and all affiliate or CPA programs work best with some pre-selling).
2.Relevancy is Key

The only reason that AdWords and AdSense referrals work reasonably for me is that my blog is on the topic of making money online. If I were to put them on any of the other blogs I’m involved with the conversion would be terrible. I’d steer clear of the program altogether unless you have readers who would naturally be interested in the topic.
3. Use Your Allowance of Two Referrals a Page

Google recently changed the rules to allow publishers to use two referral links per page instead of the previously allowed single link. I have one text link positioned at the bottom of individual posts and one in my sidebar (for AdSense). I find that the ones at the bottom of posts work best.

4. Use a Pre-Sell page

One of the problems with the AdSense referrals program is that the text links are difficult to incorporate into a post. They are not html but are a script and you are hampered in changing the wording of how the link appears. Also if you’re already using your two links on the one page (like I am) you can’t put a third link into your post. The way I get around this is to have an AdSense ‘pre-sell’ page. On this page I simply explain what AdSense is, share how it works for me and include a button to sign up for it. I can’t tell you the exact CTR on this page but it’s over 400 times better than the CTR on either of the other links appearing on my blog! Whether this converts to signups I’m unsure as AdSense don’t allow us to track signups on a channel by channel basis (and I’ve only used this pre-sell page for a month now so it’s too early to tell if it leads to readers getting to the threshold at a higher rate than the other buttons).
5. Help Your Readers Meet Thresholds

Lastly, consider how you might help those who do click through to meet the conversion thresholds. This is why on my Pre-Sell page I also have a link to my AdSense Tips pages which will help those starting out with AdSense to perform better (earning both them and me more money).

Five ways to get Explosive Traffic

2007-08-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

Do you feel good about the volume of traffic currently you are getting? How would you like to exponentially increase your blog traffic without investing an extra cent on advertising?

Yes, this can be done. Your ultimate target should be to create sustainable traffic system, a kind that will pay you for years for a one-time effort. All this can be done through the powerful principle known as leverage.

What then is the secret to leverage?

The secret to leverage is in coming up with effective, efficient and self-perpetuating systems to gain traffic for years and years. You need to invest time creating traffic building generation tool. Once done, let it loose on the web and let others do the work for you. You will only do this once but the system continues to grow and multiply your results.

Any system you set up which allows your sales message or your links to propagate online in "word of mouth" fashion qualify as leverage. This can be an article with your byline and links on it submitted to multiple article directories, a free e-book and even your affiliate program.

However, for these tools to work their magic, the same must contain incentive either in the form of profit or value. You're either paying someone in commissions for their effort or you're offering them valuable information for free.

With this in mind, here are five no-cost explosive viral leveraging tactics you can put into action immediately:

1. Viral Free Report Traffic

Free reports are common these days. If you sell information product, it is almost a requirement to have at lease one freebie report aimed to pre-sell your information product and to be given away to other websites or blogs. Allowing others to re-brand your report with their affiliate links is the basic incentive for webmasters to let your report be downloadable for free at their website. In this case, your army of traffic multiplication is made up of other webmasters.

Place more value to your free report. Your success depend upon how likely webmasters are to earn commissions by giving it away. The more webmaster made your free reports downloadable, the more traffic you can win.

2. Viral Free Article Traffic

Yes, an article containing your byline and links submitted to article directories will gain you more traffic. Your traffic will be coming from the re-distribution of your articles with the clicks on the link in your byline and from the search engines themselves.

Place more valuable information on your free articles and optimized them as well. Webmasters love to publish valuable articles especially if it's for free. The more re-distribution you get, the more traffic you can win.

3. Viral Subscriber List Traffic

If you have built your subscriber list, not put it to work for you? Again, all you need to do is offer an incentive.

One great example is for you to announce to your list that one lucky member can receive a high ticket items from you for free if they can refer say for example X number of new subscriber to your list.

4. Viral Affiliate Program Traffic

If you have your own product or acquire a resellers right of the product made by others, opening your own affiliate program is a good traffic generator. The profit incentive is built in and you pay nothing for the publicity until an actual sale is made.

You can also consider implementing a multi-tier affiliate program with an attractive incentive plan. This will build your affiliate base like crazy and generate traffic on steroids for your site.

5. Viral Referral Traffic

I have seen this to some major sites. They have a referral script to implement a "refer a friend" feature. Remember, for this to work with great success, you have to give some form of incentive in exchange for the referral.

So, they are the 5 explosive secrets to boost your traffic for free for years. Try one of them. Integrate in your campaign the principle of giving incentives and watch your traffic multiply on autopilot that will last for years if not forever.

Remember, your ultimate target should be to create sustainable traffic system, a kind that will pay you for years for a one-time effort.

Good luck.

How to Improve Your Alexa Ranking?

2007-08-27T18:37:00.001-07:00

Alexa is owned by Amazon.com and is a very useful indicator to show your relative ranking in terms of page views, reaches etc. You can use this ranking to compete and compare with your keen competitors. Below is a collection of methods you can use to boost your Alexa Rank. Most of the tips were gleaned from several fellow bloggers and webmasters who' ve experimented with Alexa.

Other tips come from specific articles and forums. Those that I have referenced are listed at the end of this post.

Do these tips work? Yes, they do. But most of them require active effort in generating traffic. They will work as long as long as you are consistently performing specific actions.

To increase your Alexa rank in the long term, I would suggest coming up with quality content which draws and maintains a large audience. This is an excellent way to passively increase your Alexa rank.

1. Install the Alexa toolbar or Firefox’s SearchStatus extension and set your blog as your homepage. This is the most basic step.

2. Put up an Alexa rank widget on your website. I did this a few days ago and receive a fair amount of clicks every day.

3. Encourage others to use the Alexa toolbar. This includes friends, fellow webmasters as well as site visitors/blog readers.

4. Work in an Office? Get the Alexa toolbar or SS Firefox extension installed on all computers and set your website as the homepage for all browsers.

5. Get friends to review and rate your Alexa website profile. Not entirely sure of its impact on rankings but it might help in some way.

6. Write or Blog about Alexa. Webmaster and bloggers love to hear about ways to increase their Alexa rank. They’ll link to you or visit your blog, which helps with your traffic rank.

7. Flaunt your URL in webmaster forums. Webmasters usually have the toolbar installed. I like doing this for a few reasons. You’ll get webmasters to visit your website and get some feedback in return. It’s also a good way to give back to the community.

8. Write content that is related to webmasters. This can fall in the category of domaining and SEO, two fields in which most webmasters will have the Alexa toolbar installed. Promote your content on social networking websites and webmaster forums.

9. Use Alexa redirects on your website URL. Try this: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.doshdosh.com . Replace doshdosh.com with the URL for your website. Leave this redirected URL in blog comments as well as forum signatures. This redirect will count a unique IP address once a day so clicking it multiple times won’t help.

10. Post in Asian social networking websites or forums. Some have suggested that Asian (Korean or Hong Kong) web users are big Alexa toolbar fans.

11. Create a webmaster tools section on your website. This is a magnet for webmasters who will often visit your website to use the tools. Aaron Wall’s webpage on SEOTools is a very good example.

12. Get Dugg or Stumbled. This usually brings massive numbers of visitors to your website and the sheer amount will have a positive impact on your Alexa Rank. Of course, you’ll have to develop link worthy material.

13. Use PayperClick Campaigns. Buying advertisements on search engines such as Google or Exact Seek will help bring in Traffic. Doubly useful when your ad is about webmaster/tech related products/content.

14. Create an Alexa category on your blog and use it to include any articles or news about Alexa. This acts as a resource for webmasters while helping you rank in the search engines.

15. Optimize your popular posts. Got a popular post that consistently receives traffic from the search engines? Include a widget at the bottom of the post, call for Alexa signups or use Alexa redirection on your internal URLs.

16. Buy banners and links for traffic from webmaster forums and websites. A prominent and well displayed ad will drive lots of webmaster traffic to your website, which can significantly boost your rank.

17. Hire forum posters to pimp your website. Either buy signatures in webmaster forums or get respected users to pimp specific articles or material in your website on a regular basis.

18. Pay Cybercafe owners to install the Alexa toolbar and set your website as the homepage for all their computers.

19. Use MySpace . This is a little shady so I don’t recommended it unless you’re really interested in artificially inflating your Alexa Rank. Use visually attractive (wierd/sexy/funny) pictures or banners and link them to your redirected Alexa URL. You’ll get a lot of clicks but it doesn’t mean people are visiting your website.

20. Try Alexa auto-surfs. Do they work? Maybe for brand new sites. I think they are most suitable for new websites with a terrible Alexa rank. There might also be problems when you try to use auto surfs alongside contextual ads like Adsense.

Link Building Strategies

2007-08-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

If you want to get serious about driving more traffic to your website and improving your search engine rankings you need to develop a linking strategy.

Link building is on the mouth of everyone these days. On the forums I read, and in some newsletters I receive, there are people already talking about the chance that Google will start to penalize those websites that sell links, considering buying text links for ranking purposes to be a violation of its quality guidelines.

There could be a change that this could be truth, but there are smarter ways to buy links and some rules to follow that could help you, even if Google goes this way.

There are some companies offering specific services to avoid this penalty. Repeating the same anchor text in hundreds of link, is one thing to avoid. Search engines can easily detect anything that isn’t unique. So keep it unique by varying the anchor text.

Site-wide links are good to drive traffic. Don’t buy site wide links for link popularity/rankings.
Irrelevant links are also not good. Don’t go buying links for your automotive site from a script directory site.

There are also more rules you should follow, do some research before start buying links like crazy.

Drive Traffic to Your Blog - 1

2007-08-27T18:34:00.000-07:00

One of the most effective ways to generate traffic to your Web site is to exchange links with other Web sites. Both sites benefit from reciprocal links with sites that attract the same targeted audience. Links to your site increase your traffic, imply that your site is worth visiting, and may increase your search engine ranking. Links to other sites provide useful resources and give visitors a reason to return to your site.

When requesting a link, you will often get it -- especially if you offer a link back and provide good content. It is harder to get links if your content is strictly promotional. Link only to Web sites that reach the customers you want, provide information your target audience is interested in, and offer content and products that complement yours. For example, a Web design company may link to sites providing free graphics and diagnostic tools.

Five Ways to Find Linking Partners
- Search for Web sites to exchange links with by going to search engines and using keywords related to your own site. Email the webmaster and ask for a link exchange.
- Check out Web directories for appropriate sites.
- Go to Link-O-Matic (http://www.linkomatic.com), a directory of Web sites looking for reciprocal linking.
- Check out LinkShare (http://www.linkshare.com), a free referral program.
- Subscribe to LinkUp (email: Subscribe-LinkUp@CommerceStreet.com), a discussion list service and send messages to find link partners.

Tips for Creating Links
- Create a separate page containing links to other sites.
- Include a benefit in your listing to motivate people to click on your link.
- If you don't know how to create links to other sites, have your webmaster set them up for you. You'll need to provide the Web addresses of the sites you want to link to and a short description of what they offer.

How to Get Other Sites to Link to You
- When asking for a reciprocal link, provide a link first to their site and mention it.
- Then email a personalized message to the webmaster of the sites you want to get a link from. Provide the following information in your link request: Mention that you visited their site; compliment their site; invite them to visit your site; provide an incentive for them to link to you; mention how a link to your site will benefit their visitors; ask for a link; provide a suggested listing for your link.

Sample Link Request

Thank you,

Hitech Blogger

Traffic Building Strategy - 3

2007-08-27T18:31:00.000-07:00

TrackBack may not be a popular thing to most bloggers. Many do not even know about it and among those who are knowledgeable about TrackBack, never used it on their blogs. But, I will tell you that if you only know how to effectively use TrackBack, it will certainly bring you good blog traffic. So you have an idea by now on what exactly this post is all about. Let’s get started.It is best to start with what exactly a TrackBack is, how to do it, and making a test before we proceed to discuss on how to use it effectively to increase blog traffic.What is TrackBack?TrackBack is a system implemented by Movable Type and later adopted by many blogging tools, including TypePad, BoastMachine, WordPress, and Nucleus.

Essentially, TrackBack is a mechanism for communication between blogs. If a blogger writes a new post commenting on or referring to the post found on another blog and if both the commenting blogger’s blog and the other blog has TrackBack mechanism support, then the commenting blogger can notify the other blog with a "TrackBack ping" which means the other blog will automatically display a backlink and summaries of the commenting blogger’s new post at the post which had been cited to.

How Do We Notify The Other Blog with a TrackBack Ping?First, understand that not all blog has enable TrackBack functionality. When they do, you should see a TrackBack link at the bottom of the post. Once you find the link and you wish to talk about the post made by another blogger, click the TrackBack link of that post and copy the TrackBack URL.

Once you have that TrackBack URL, go to your own blog and create a new entry related to that post. Before posting your entry, paste the TrackBack URL in the space provided for TrackBacks. This will send the notification to the blog you referenced once you publish your entry. So, there, you’ve sent a TrackBack.Just make sure when you're sending TrackBack URLs that your blog entry is relevant to the one you are referring to. Otherwise, you will be perceived as a TrackBack spammer.

Send a Test Trackback! As a way to try this out, you can send a TrackBack ping to this post. Just click the TrackBack link located at the end of this post. There, you'll find the TrackBack URL for this entry, in this case (http://haloscan.com/tb/ru8en/8505413345883737052). Go to your blog, make a new entry talking about this post, paste the TrackBack URL and publish. If your ping worked, you should find your TrackBack reference the next time you click the TrackBack link of this post. If there are people who already sent TrackBack ping to the blog entry, you will find references to these TrackBacks as well.

How to use TrackBack Effectively Increase Blog Traffic?Remember, sending TrackBack ping to other blog will automatically create a backlink and summaries of the commenting blogger’s new post at the post which had been cited to. Unlike usual backlinks, backlinks made by TrackBack ping may not increase your search engine ranking but will still served as a doorway to your blog.To increase blog traffic using TrackBack, send TrackBack ping to high traffic blogs and popular blog post. This will cause a portion of their traffic flowing to your blog. Also send TrackBack ping to blogs whose theme are closely related to your blog as their loyal blog traffic will certainly be interested in your post.Again, just make sure when you're sending TrackBack ping that your blog entry is relevant to the one you are referring to.

Also, if you want to let people send TrackBack pings to your weblog, make sure that you have it enabled. Some blogging systems like Blogger need extra plugins or third party services to have TrackBack feature. To have this blog a Trackback feature I used a free third party services by HaloScan. I will talk more on HaloScan next time. Stay tuned!

Traffic Building Strategy - 2

2007-08-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

Good Day! I'm here again. As stated in my previous post, this blog implemented Technorati Tag to get some traffic. So, maybe you might ask, how was it? What's the traffic? Honestly, I still don't no. It's too early to track the traffic and this blog is just 3 days old. But I will start telling you about the traffic maybe after 10 posts. Today, I visited high traffic blogs and try to list down their common features. There are a number of which but for now, I will just tackle one - RSS feed. Yes, most high traffic blogs publish RSS feed.

Every serious blogger publishes an RSS feed of his posts and readers aggregate all their favorites blogs feeds in an aggregator. When you publish your RSS feed, your viewers will thank you, and there will be more of them, because it allows them to see your site without going out of their way to visit.While this seems bad at first glance, it actually improves your blog's visibility; by making it easier for your users to keep up with your site - allowing them to see it the way they want to - it's more likely that they'll know when something that interests them is available on your site.

For example, imagine your blog announces a new product or feature every week or two. Without a feed, your viewers have to remember to come to your blog and see if they find anything new - if they have time. If you provide a feed for them, they can point their aggregator or other software at it, and it will give them a link and a description of developments at your blog almost as soon as they happen.By providing a feed, you are in front of them constantly, improving the chances that they'll click through to a post that catches their eye and visit your blog.Here, this blog now provide a feed for which anybody can subscribe. There are various formats or protocols of feed available such as RSS and Atom. However, my feeds are readable to any format the subscriber is using because of SmartFeed service by FeedBurner.

So what is FeedBurner?FeedBurnerFeedBurner is a service that takes a normal, everyday RSS or Atom feed of any kind and turns (burns) it into a FeedBurner feed that you can then distribute to readers for use in any RSS reader. The company currently hosts more than 470,000 combined RSS and Atom feeds for over 280,000 content publishers and delivered feeds to 19 million subscribers.One reason a blog owner would want to use this is because it simplifies the RSS feed.

The Feed URL for this blog, for instance, is http://feeds.feedburner.com/HitechBlogger, which is a much simpler format that standard RSS feeds. Also, most blogging software offers a variety of RSS feeds - Atom, RSS 1.0, 2.0, etc. Sometimes these feeds don’t work properly with some readers. And if a blog can get most of its readers to use the single Feedburner feed, they can take advantage of the great statistics and tools to see where readers are coming from and what they are clicking on.Another big reason for using FeedBurner, however, is that it can automatically add Google Adsense ads to your feeds, allowing you to easily generate revenue if you have a large enough audience. For more information, come and visit Feedburner.

Traffic Building Strategy - 1

2007-08-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

In order to turn your blog as well as this blog into money making machine it needs to have traffic. No traffic simple means no money. The higher the traffic you get, the higher the chances of you getting big money. So getting traffic is all important. Many first time blogger automatically assume that once their blog is setup and they put a few posts on it, they will get some hits and regular readers. This is definitely a wrong impression. You won’t get any traffic if no one knows about your blog. So at this early, it is good to focus on how to boost traffic for your blog.

I took a look around at what some of the successful blogs were doing and came up with a number of traffic strategies that help them increase their blog traffic. As we go along, I will discuss these strategies one by one. For now, let me talk about boosting your blog traffic with Technorati.

Technorati is one of the best traffic providers for bloggers. People find your blogs easily when people search by technorati tags. Technorati will rank your blog based on the number of links from other websites.

The higher your rank the easier your blog is to find when people search for things.Again, how will Technorati give you great traffic? Basically, you need to do three things: First, add tags that are specific to your blog. Next, add tags that people are likely to be searching for that also apply to the things that you are writing about. Lastly, actively recruit links from other blogs to your blog by asking other bloggers to link to you.

2 Column Blogger Template: Chocolate

2007-08-27T18:07:00.000-07:00

Get Template Code

Visit My blog for other template list

Simple Intro to Increasing Traffic to Your Blog

2007-08-27T17:49:00.000-07:00

Increasing traffic to your blog is fundamental to your blog's success on the Internet. As you'll soon find, it isn't all that hard to increase traffic to your blog, but it does take time.

The first and most important rule for increasing traffic to your blog is to post, post and then post some more. Posting new and unique content on a regular basis to your blog is crucial to success.

Another critical method for getting traffic to your blog in through by establishing links to your site on other people's webpages. This servers two purposes for your blog. First, a link on someone else's site can be clicked on thus bringing a visitor to your site. Secondly, links on other sites pointing to your site factor into the equations that Google, Yahoo and MSN use to determine the order in which sites are listed in searches conducted on their site. These types of links are referred to as "inbound" links.

When you try to develop inbound links it is important to make sure that the links are relevant. For example, if your blog is about cars then it doesn't do a lot of good to have an inbound link from a website about vacation spots. Your goal is to get inbound links on sites similar to your blog or, at a minimum, sites that target the same type of people (age, gender, interest, etc.) as your blog.

To begin developing inbound links, do a search for other blogs that are relevant to your blog. If your blog is about cars then search "cars" in Blogger Search or Technorati (two of the bigger blog search engines). Browse through the results that you get and make a list of those that you think are well designed and interesting. In order to get a link on those blogs you will most likely have to give something in return and usually the easiest thing to give is a link to them. So from that list add a link on your blog for each of the blogs that you liked. Then, after doing so, email the owner of each of those site and write something along the lines of:

"Hello, my name is John and I write for Crazy Cars, a blog about cars. I've recently added a link to your site on my homepage because I feel that my readers are in a very similar demographic to that of your site. If you get a chance check my site out and if you like what you see please link back.

Thank you, John"

Remember that these blog owners don't owe you anything for you linking to them, but often if you ask nice you'll get a link back.

Another way to build inbound links to your blog is by submitting your blog to blog and web directories. These directories contain literally thousands of websites and very rarely will someone come to your site by clicking on a link in one of the directories. However, including you blog in these directories can in many case help your ranking in search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc). Don't spend too much time doing this but if you have a little free time they are worth looking into.

Finally, and maybe the biggest key to increasing blog traffic is to write interesting and excellent content. The most powerful way to get people to your blog is to write content that your readers want to read. This will not only make people want to come back but it will also make them want to tell others about your blog. Anyone can get someone to come to their blog once but getting someone to come back again and again, that is the key to increasing your blog traffic.

So post often, build links so people can find you and then make sure to keep it interesting. They'll come...for now, work hard and be patient.

Making Money From Blogging

2007-08-27T17:48:00.001-07:00

For most of us blogging is just a hobby, just something we do in our spare time for fun. But there are a select few bloggers out there who are making mad money from their "hobby".

And there's no reason that you can't get in on the action too. In fact, a cover story entitled "Blogging for Dollars" was in a recent issue of Business 2.0. I read the article and was less than impressed with Business 2.0's tips on how readers can make money from blogging. In fact the tips were so rudimentary that it was almost embarrassing that someone thought those tips alone could help. Well they tried...and they bring up an interesting point, how does one go about making money from blogging?

Over the next few weeks I'll be discussing some of my thoughts on the issue. For now if you have anything you'd like to see covered, post a comment and let me know.

Also, before we get started be sure to review some of my previous tips on increasing traffic to your blog because without traffic there is not going to be much money to be made.

How to remove Blogger Beta Navbar

2007-08-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

I never happened to like the Blogger Navbar at the top of my Blog and I bet all the Bloggers have the same opinion.
Ok... lets waste no more time and get into our work. Lets learn HOW TO REMOVE BLOGGER BETA NAVBAR

First, login into your blogger (beta) account and click Template.
Now, click on Edit HTML. Wait... look at the code and go to line which says
```
/* global
----------------------------------------------- */
```
Infact, you can add the hack code anywhere in the stylesheet but I reccomend you to do as I said so that you don't screw up the layout.
Now add this style (the hack code) anywhere in the stylesheet
```
#navbar #Navbar1 iframe{
display:none;
visibility:none;
}
```
Save the changes and have a look at your new Blog. You'll find that the Navbar has disappeared

Note: This hack has been devised entirely by me and please let me know if it is published in any other site without proper credits. You can use the code and publish the method as long as you give me the proper credit.
Also please let me know if you have any problems using the hack code.

Why Orkut removed user pics from its homepage Logo!

2007-08-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

Just noticed orkut has changed its homepage drastically!

At first a funny thought came to my mind! I felt the logo might be temporarily changed for India. As Orkut featured Indian logo 2 days back I thought the original is lost somewhere so this temporary arrangement (see following screenshot)! Lolz!

But I checked from various proxies and the logo is same everywhere! If you fail to remember, let me show you old orkut logo featuring 10 faces! (thanks Google Cache)

It would not be surprise if these faces have been changed but orkut removed all faces! And I failed to figure out why???

So everybody out there… Let us know if you can figure out some answer!

Popularity: 13% [?]

Blogger + Adsense Hack: Show ads after each post to earn more from your blogger beta blog!

2007-08-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

This trick surprisingly increased my earnings 4 times from last few days!
I have modified my blog code to put adsense ads between post title and post body!
Well this kind of ad placement will surely result in higher payout! But I’m demonstrating how to do that for blogger beta only! You can apply similar hack for other blogging platform! (Google for help, are contact me if u get stuck)

#Steps for placing ads in every post!
1. Log in to your blogger beta account!
2. From your dashbord, click on “Layout”
3. Next click “Edit HTML”
4. Now Check “Expand Widget Templates” (by default it is unchecked)
5. Now search for post.body in codes. (Better use your browsers built-in search feature)
6. By default it should appear in your layout code only for once and you should reach the line…

<p><data:post.body></data:post.body></p>

7. Now if you want to put your adsense codes between post title and post body paste it above the line you found in step 6 or below the line to show ads after posts!
8. Wait its not over yet! You have to modify adsense codes a little-bit. But don’t worry about the TOS as this modification will not be visible after template gets saved. (In-fact I’m doing this only)
9. Your Google Adsense Codes will have following lines!

<script> type=’text/javascript’><!–
…..
//–>
</script>

just replace highlighted < with < and > with >
If you have any doubt about this please read note at the end!
10. Its time to hit preview button!

#Tips: Using Blend template for Adsense!
From day one, I have been using Blend template for Google Adsense. But in above hack you must use that! I feel so because your ads will appear in every post and end-user experience may degrade if your color scheme is annoying!

#Note: How modification to the Adsense code is not against its TOS?
First you can open your blog and cross-check its source code using browsers “view source” option to see Adsense Codes back to what you have got!
Now if you know about HTML then in HTML laguage, we just used HTML Character Entities.
What gets stored in blogger database is actual code!
So don’t worry be happy & rich

Google AdSense Goes Rounded

2007-08-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

Google AdSense has introduced an option which lets you customize the look of your ad by rounding edges. You can either change your ads with slightly rounded corners, very rounded corners or keep it square (default). Screenshot:

You’ll find this new option to choose corner style while generating your ad code in your AdSense dashboard. Alternatively, you can also inject appropriate line into your current ad code to round it off (remove text within brackets):

google_ui_features = “rc:10?; for very rounded corners
google_ui_features = “rc:6?; (for slightly rounded corners)
google_ui_features = “rc:0?; (square corners)

Since it’s new and different, novelty will certainly play it’s role in getting clicks. This might be a right opportunity to try your luck experimenting with colors and background colors. Usually, ads blended into the content delivery good results above the content. However, you can try blending out below or in the sidebar section. Share your results through comments.

Google’s Offical AdSense blog also reads that they’re working on more choices to customize your ad formats. I’m expecting a way to change fonts and dimensions of ad. Good Job, AdSense Team

Increase bandwidth to browse fast

2007-08-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

Follow the following steps very carefully and enjoy the speed of internet....

if u follow these steps carefully and by being patient you can enjoy the speed of
internet...

Note : these steps are applicable only for Broadband Connection

Step 1:

The following tweak applies only to Windows XP Professional edition.

The default system behavior is that all 100% bandwidth is available, however, if there is a running application that indicates to the OS it needs to send high priority/real time data, then as long as it has the socket open, Windows XP will restrict “best effort” traffic to 80% of the bandwidth so that high priority traffic can be accommodated. Basically, applications can make this request to the operating system for QoS support using the QoS application programming interfaces (APIs) in Windows and this only applies if a specific app is requesting QoS.

If you'd like to change how much bandwidth is reserved for QoS (the default is 20% of the total bandwidth), do the following:

1. Make sure you're logged in as "Administrator" (not just any account with admin privileges).
2. Navigate to START>Run and type: gpedit.msc
3. Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Administrative Templates > Network > QOS Packet Scheduler
4. In the right window, double-click the limit reservable bandwidth setting
5. On the setting tab, check the enabled setting.
6. Where it says "Bandwidth limit %", change it to read 0 (or whatever percentage you want to reserve for high priority QoS data)
7. Click OK, close gpedit.msc

Under START > My Computer > My Network Connections > View Network Connections, right-click on your connection and under Properties (where it lists your protocols), make sure QOS Packet Scheduler is enabled.

The tweak desribed below helps boost priority for DNS & hostname resolution in general. What this means is, it helps web pages load faster, and has negligible effect on downloads (not counting the couple of ms gain with the host resolution at connect-time).

Applying this tweak assumes some proficiency in editing the Windows Registry using Regedit (Start > Run > type: regedit). As always, backup your Registry before making any changes so you can revert to the previous state if you don't like the results.

[b]2.Host Resolution Priority Tweak[/b]
host name resolution priority
Windows 2k/XP

First, open the Windows Registry using Regedit, and (after backing up) navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\Tcpip\ServiceProvider

Step 2:

Note the following lines (all hex dwords):
Class = 008 (8) - indicates that TCP/IP is a name service provider, don't change.

LocalPriority = 1f3 (499) - local names cache
HostsPriority = 1f4 (500) - the HOSTS file
DnsPriority = 7d0 (2000) - DNS
NetbtPriority = 7d1 (2001) - NetBT name-resolution, including WINS

What we're aiming to do is increase the priority of the last 4 settings, while keeping their order. The valid range is from -32768 to +32767 and lower numbers mean higher priority compared to other services. What we're aiming at is lower numbers without going to extremes, something like what's shown below should work well:

Change the "Priority" lines to:
LocalPriority = 005 (5) - local names cache
HostsPriority = 006 (6) - the HOSTS file
DnsPriority = 007 (7) - DNS
NetbtPriority = 008 (8) - NetBT name-resolution, including WINS

[b]Windows 9x/ME[/b]

The tweak is essentialy the same as in Windows 2000/XP, just the location in the Registry is slightly different. For a more detailed description see the Windows 2000/XP section above.

Open the Windows Registry using Regedit, and (after backing up) navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Servic es\VxD\MSTCP\ServiceProvider

You should see the following settings:
Class=hex:08,00,00,00

LocalPriority=hex:f3,01,00,00
HostsPriority=hex:f4,01,00,00
DnsPriority=hex:d0,07,00,00
NetbtPriority=hex:d1,07,00,00

The "priority" lines should be changed to:
LocalPriority=hex:05,00,00,00
HostsPriority=hex:06,00,00,00
DnsPriority=hex:07,00,00,00
NetbtPriority=hex:08,00,00,00

Reboot for changes to take effect.

How to find files on RapidShare and other Servers (Search Rapidshare)

2007-08-27T16:04:00.000-07:00

Method # 1

If you dont know already, RapidShare is a website in which users can upload files, no matter the format, and give links to others to download the files. There is a 50MB limit per file, and you can only download a set number of MB per hour, but it is still a VERY usefull service in transfering data. The only thing is, you cannot search their database for files, you have to specifically be given a link to a file.

This “hack”, however, allows you to search for files on RapidShare, through google. Use the following links:

www.rapidshare-search-engine.com ((both rapishare.com and .de searching files))
http://www.searchshared.com/ ((it searches rapidshare and many others))

If You want to search through Google Then Use these Links :

For misc files.

For executables, rared archives, zip files.

For videos.

Searching for a specific file using a word

Type on Google the following:

Quote:
cab OR exe OR rar OR zip “example” site:rapidshare.de

Where “example” is the specific file you want to search.

Method # 2

There are other Sites which list huge records of files uploaded on Rapidshare..

Two of such sites are as following :

If you guys know of any other sites,,, please take the pain of posting about it in the comments..

Thanks !!

Javascript Fun [Edit Any Webpage]

2007-08-27T15:57:00.001-07:00

Using this great trick you can edit any website you want...set there parameters and much more..

Here is how to Use it :
1) Go to any web-site you want to edit
2) Copy this Javascript :
javascript:nick=document.body;nick.contentEditable='true'; document.designMode='on'; void 0
3) Past this Javascript into the address bar (Where you write addresses of sites like www.google.com)
4) Press Enter Or Click Go

See the Magic...
Hope you enjoy it...
and don't forget to give the feed back so i keep on posting such tricks..

Styles for test

2007-07-27T12:53:00.000-07:00

Just copy the code & paste it where ever you want.
The code is in correlation with the images. It follows the same order.
Now paste your msg before or after text

[yellow] ≈ ☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆ ≈
[red].:*♥*:._.:*♥*:._.:*♥*:._.:*♥*:._.:*♥*:.
[yellow] ≈ ☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆≈≈≈☆ ≈

[b][GREEN]╫╫╫[:)]╫╫╫[:)]╫╫╫[:)]╫╫╫[:)]╫╫╫
╫╫╫[:)]╫╫╫[:)]╫╫╫[:)]╫╫╫[:)]╫╫╫ [/b]

[red]♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣
[green]♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣
[blue]♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣__♣..♣

[orange].:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.
[yellow].:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.
[orange].:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.★.:*~*:.

[orange]★`·..·´★`·..·´★`·..·´★`·..·´★`·..·´★`·..·´★
[red]♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥▒♥
[orange]★`·..·´★`·..·´★`·..·´★`·..·´★`·..·´★`·..·´★

[violet]▓♡▓☆▓♢▓♧▓♤▓♡▓☆▓♢▓♧▓♤▓♡▓☆▓♢▓♧▓♤▓
[navy]▓♤▓♡▓☆▓♢▓♧▓♤▓♡▓☆▓♢▓♧▓♤▓♡▓☆▓♢▓♧▓
[red]▓♧▓♤▓♡▓☆▓♢▓♧▓♤▓♡▓☆▓♢▓♧▓♤▓♡▓☆▓♢▓

Special symbols

2007-07-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

IF you want to put up some symbols in your text then try"ALT + (NO.)
SOME are given below.
alt + 1 - ☺
alt + 2 - ☻If you wanted to put up some special symbols in your scraps then try this one
ALT + no's (from side keybar)

laptop users can try this out
� followed by the 4 digit no.

Eg- ALT+ 1=☺

& # 9 8 0 0/1/2...../11 sreies(without spaces)= ♈/ ♉ (Sunshine symbol )

Try out you can get a lot of symbols
alt + 3 - ♥
alt + 4 - ♦
alt + 5 - ♣
alt + 6 - ♠
alt + 7 - •
alt + 8 - ◘
alt + 9 - ○

For CURRENCY
alt + 154/5/6/7 -¢/£/¥/₧

For typing in French/Portuguese
alt+128-153 -Ç/é/æ.....

The some images will be only visible in IE5+