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Monday, August 31, 2009

Single molecule's stunning image

The detailed chemical structure of a single molecule has been imaged for the first time, say researchers.

Even the bonds to the hydrogen atoms at the pentacene's periphery can be seen.

The physical shape of single carbon nanotubes has been outlined before, using similar techniques - but the new method even shows up chemical bonds.

Understanding structure on this scale could help in the design of many things on the molecular scale, particularly electronics or even drugs.

The IBM researchers report their findings in the journal Science.

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Fake Dutch 'moon rock' revealed

A treasured piece at the Dutch national museum - a supposed moon rock from the first manned lunar landing - is nothing more than petrified wood, curators say.


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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Google Opens Up Its EPUB Archive: Download 1 Million Books for Free

google_books_logo_aug09.pngGoogle just announced that it will now allow users to download over 1 million public domain books in the EPUB format. Google had already made this archive available to some of its partners, including Sony and Barnes and Noble, but until today users weren't able to download these free EPUB texts from Google directly. Google will continue to make PDF versions of these books available for download as well, but users with eReader's will find the new EPUB files far more useful.
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 1 Walkthroughs

Visual Studio 2010 is an exciting release in managed languages and tools. Visual C# and Visual Basic languages continue to evolve towards feature parity, strive to simplify programming and deployment with the Microsoft Office APIs, and allow easy interop to dynamic languages. Visual F# is a new programming language which combines functional, object-oriented and explorative programming to provide a succinct, expressive and scalable language for .NET. In the tools space, Visual Studio 2010 offers greater support for Test-Driven Development, where tests are written before product code as an iterative approach to software design.

Here are some walkthroughs, you may find helpful to learn more...
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Util Library & Extension Methods

Farhan Ejaz at CodeProject.com has collected some extension methods; may be of your interest.
Project Namespaces
DateExtensions
  1. DateTimeExtensions
NumberExtensions
  1. NumberExtensions
  2. NumberExtensions.FluentDate
  3. NumberExtensions.Computation.Mathematical
  4. NumberExtensions.Collections
StringExtensions
  1. StringExtensions
  2. StringExtensions.Encode
  3. StringExtensions.Validators
DateTime.png Number.png string.png

Here's the entire article...


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Facebook disables 6 rogue phishing apps, but 5 more appear

Facebook on Thursday said it had disabled six rogue apps that were stealing Facebook users' log-in credentials and spamming people, and within hours more appeared.

Five more of the apps appeared on Thursday, called "Friends," "Friends Gifts," "Matching," "Pok," and "Your Photos," according to an updated blog post by Trend Micro researcher Rik Ferguson.

By that night those new ones were disabled too. Facebook "will continue to ensure that all applications on Facebook Platform comply with Facebook policies," a spokeswoman for the company said.

According to Ferguson's post: "The new rogue apps take the same format as previously but use different application icons, have slightly more credible notifications to your friends and also now feature bogus notifications to the profile owner, presumably in an effort to persuade the victim to install further apps and maximise the fraudsters' advertising returns."

He had discovered six rogue apps earlier in the week. One of those was disabled as of Wednesday, and later the other five from the first batch were disabled.

Before the apps were removed, victims had been receiving notifications that someone had commented on a post of theirs. The notifications contained links to a phishing site where users were prompted to provide their Facebook log-in credentials and then prompted to install one of the rogue apps, according to Ferguson. Once the app was installed, the victim's friends were spammed.

Updated at 10:44 p.m. PDT with Facebook disabling the five new apps and at 12:43 p.m. with discovery of five new rogue apps.

Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press.
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Friday, August 21, 2009

Windows 7 will run 120 days for free, Microsoft confirms

Like its predecessor, Windows 7 can be used for up to 120 days without providing a product activation key, Microsoft confirmed today.

Although Microsoft generally touts a 30-day time limit for users to activate their copies of the company's operating system, a little-known command designed for corporate administrators can be used by anyone to "reset" the countdown up to three times.

Late yesterday, the Windows Secrets newsletter published step-by-step instructions on using a single-line command to add an additional 90 days to the stock 30-day grace period.

Microsoft allows users to install and run any version of Windows 7 for up to 30 days without requiring a product activation key, a 25-character alphanumeric string that proves the copy is legitimate. During the 30-day grace period, Windows 7 operates as if it has been activated. As the grace period shrinks, however, increasingly-frequent messages appear on the screen. For example, on days four through 27, a pop-up asks the user to activate once each day. During days 28 and 29, the pop-up displays every four hours, while on Day 30, it appears hourly.

But by invoking the "slmgr -rearm" command at a Windows 7 command prompt, users can reset the time-until-activation to 30 days, said Woody Leonard, a contributing editor to Windows Secrets and the author of several computer books, including Windows Vista All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies.

"You can run the -rearm trick a total of three times," said Leonard. "If you perform a -rearm at the end of each 30-day period, you end up with 120 days of full, unfettered Windows 7 use, without having to supply an activation key."

Leonard tested the command on Windows 7 RTM (release to manufacturing), the final build of the operating system that Microsoft has already shipped to computer makers and distributed to IT professionals and developers who subscribe to the TechNet and MSDN services.

Microsoft confirmed that "-rearm" can be used as many as three times by Windows 7 users to avoid activation. "This means [that] a total of 120 days total time is available as a grace period to customers that take advantage of -rearm," said a company spokeswoman.

Nor is extending the grace period a violation of the Windows 7 End User License Agreement (EULA), the spokeswoman said.

Windows Secrets and others published information about the same grace period extension two years ago, shortly after Microsoft launched Vista. "Rearm is the same in Windows 7 as in Vista," noted Brian Livingston, the editor of Windows Secrets, in an interview yesterday.

Microsoft introduced product activation in 2001's Office XP and also used it in that year's Windows XP. The feature was toughened up for Vista, however; after the grace period, non-activated PCs running Vista dropped into what Microsoft called "reduced functionality" mode. In reduced mode, users could only browse the Web with Internet Explorer, and then only for an hour before being forced to again log on.

In early 2008, however, Microsoft revamped that process, which some had dubbed a "kill switch," in favor of a black background and constant nagging reminders. Later in 2008, Microsoft introduced the same procedures to Windows XP when it rolled out Service Pack 3 (SP3).

In February 2009, Microsoft said Windows 7 would use the same reminders, a black screen and persistent notices.

"We knew that -rearm worked on the beta and RC [of Windows 7], but until it was finished, there was no way to be sure it would work in the final," said Livingston.

Although Windows 7 won't go on sale until Oct. 22, the RTM build has leaked to file-sharing sites. In fact, the build that Microsoft later identified as RTM hit BitTorrent almost a week before the company officially announced the milestone.

The -rearm command isn't the only way users can run Windows 7 without paying. Until about 11 a.m. ET Thursday, users can download a free copy of Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC), the last public preview issued before Microsoft wrapped up work on the OS.

Source

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The 10 Stupidest Tech Company Blunders

'This iPod thing will never catch on'--and 9 more unbelievable (in hindsight) missed
tech opportunities.


Dan Tynan, PC World


Monday, August 17, 2009 06:30 PM PDT
Facebook in Yahoo's rear-view mirror
Some of the biggest high-tech deals never happened. Some of the most promising products
and services never came to be. Why? Because the people and companies involved didn't
realize what they were letting slip through their fingers, or they simply couldn't
foresee what would happen afterward.


Change just a few circumstances, and there might not be an Apple or a Microsoft
today. Yahoo might be the king of the search hill, with Google lagging behind. You
might be reading this on a Xerox-built computer via a CompuServe account while listening
to your favorite tunes on a RealPod.



People say hindsight is 20-20. If so, our vision is acute. Here are our picks for
the biggest missed opportunities in the history of technology.



1. Yahoo Loses Facebook



In 2006, Facebook was a two-year-old social network that most people thought of
as a digital playground for Ivy League brats. In the world of social networks, MySpace's
100 million members totally swamped Facebook's 8 million. So when Yahoo offered to buy Mark Zuckerberg's baby for a cool $1
billion--nearly
twice what Rupert Murdoch had spent for MySpace in 2005
--people said, "Take
the money and run, Mark." In fact, the then-23-year-old and Yahoo shook hands on
a deal in June 2006.



Then Yahoo posted some bad financials, and its stock dropped 22 percent overnight.
Yahoo's CEO at the time, Terry Semel, reacted by cutting the purchase offer to $800
million. Zuckerberg balked. Two months later Semel re-upped the offer to $1 billion,
but by then it was too late.



Today, Facebook boasts some 250 million registered users and is
worth roughly $5 to $10 billion
, depending on who's counting. Three years
and two CEOs later, Yahoo is still struggling to survive.



2. Real Networks Punts on the iPod


People think Steve Jobs invented the iPod. He didn't, of course. Jobs merely said
yes to engineer Tony Fadell after the folks at Real Networks rejected Fadell's idea for a new kind of music
player in the fall of 2000. (Fadell's former employer Philips also turned him down.)


By then MP3 players had been around for years, but
Fadell's concept
was slightly different: smaller, sleeker, and focused on
a content-delivery system that would give music lovers an easy way to fill up their
"pods." (Jobs is famous for driving the design of the iPod.)



Today that content-delivery system is known as iTunes, and Apple controls some 80
percent of the digital music market. Fadell worked at, and eventually ran, Apple's
iPod division until November 2008. Real Networks is still a player in the streaming-media
world, but its revenues are a fraction of what Apple makes from iTunes alone.



3. Sony and Toshiba Agree to Disagree Over HD


HD DVD versus Blu-ray
Few format wars have been as costly to their participants as the fight over a new

high-definition disc standard
. In one corner stood Blu-ray, championed by
Sony. In the other corner was HD DVD, led largely by Toshiba.


From 2002 onward the two sides wrangled, each signing up allies to support its own
competing, incompatible format. In 2008 Sony slipped the knife into Toshiba by paying
one of its biggest backers,
Warner Brothers Studios
, a reported $400 million to drop HD DVD in favor
of Blu-ray.



Interestingly the same parties had battled in the mid-1990s over a new high-res
format for movies. Back then they settled their differences, combining the best
of both specs into something called Digital Versatile Disc, better known as DVD.



The missed opportunity to come out with a single HD format sacrificed years' worth
of sales for every company involved. Had the two sides joined forces in 2002, high-def
discs would be the dominant delivery medium for movies and shows now. Instead, today
DVDs still outsell Blu-ray titles by ten to one, and the future belongs to streaming
media and video on demand.



4. Digital Research: The Other Microsoft


This one is a classic. In 1980, when IBM was looking for somebody to build a disc
operating software for its brand-new IBM PC, Microsoft was not its first choice.
In fact, none other than Bill Gates suggested that Big Blue approach Gary Kildall
of Digital Research, author of the CP/M operating system.


The legend is that Kildall blew IBM off to go fly his plane. The real story is that
Kildall was flying to deliver a product to another customer, leaving his wife to
negotiate with IBM. Dorothy
Kildall didn't like parts of the deal IBM was proposing
and sent the executives
packing.



Big Blue went back to Gates, who with his partner Paul Allen whipped out MS-DOS,
based on Tim Paterson's QDOS (the Quick and Dirty Operating System), which was itself
based on CP/M. IBM ended up offering both Microsoft's DOS (for $60) and a version
of CP/M ($240) to buyers of the original IBM PC. The cheaper product won.



Before DOS, Microsoft's biggest products were versions of the BASIC programming
tool. After DOS, well...you know the rest. Would Microsoft have grown into the monolith
it is today without the IBM contract? We'll never know.



5. Xerox Goes in an Alto Direction


The Xerox Alto (Courtesy of Wikimedia)
Here's another classic tale. More than a decade before the Macintosh and Windows
PCs, before even the MITS Altair, there was the Alto, the world's first computer
with a window-based graphical user interface. Invented at
Xerox PARC
, the Alto had a mouse, ethernet networking, and a what-you-see-is-what-you-get
(WYSIWYG) text processor.
But in 1973 the personal-computer market didn't exist, so Xerox didn't really know
what to do with the Alto. The company manufactured a few thousand units and distributed
them to universities. As legend has it, in 1979 Steve Jobs visited Xerox PARC, saw
the Alto, and incorporated
many of the Alto's features
into Apple's Lisa and Mac computers. Shortly
thereafter Xerox finally realized its mistake and began marketing the Xerox Star,
a graphical workstation based on technology developed for the Alto. But it was too
little, too late.


Next: Five more blown opportunities, including Napster, CompuServe,
and Craigslist.



6. Recording Industry Plays the Same Old Tune


Napster logo
Perhaps no other industry has missed more tech opportunities than the music business.


In 1999, Shawn Fanning's Napster made it incredibly easy for people to share music
online. The
record companies reacted by suing Napster
for contributing to copyright
infringement. Then-Napster CEO Hank Barry called for the music industry to adopt a radio-style licensing agreement that paid royalties
to artists for music distributed via the Net. His calls fell on deaf ears.



Napster fans quickly moved on to other peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as
Gnutella and Grokster, and music "pirates" became the RIAA's public enemy number
one.



In 2000 MP3.com launched a service that allowed members to upload songs from their
own private CD collection and stream them to any PC. The
recording industry sued MP3.com for copyright infringement
and eventually
won. MP3.com was sold and changed business models.



Add to all that the
RIAA's suits against Grokster, Morpheus,
Kazaa, and some 30,000-odd music
"pirates." Talk about your broken records.



Today, of course, music-subscription businesses and streaming services such as Pandora
dominate digital music. Had the record companies partnered with Napster, MP3.com,
or any of the other file sharing networks instead of suing them, they might control
digital music sales today--without nearly as many problems with piracy.



7. Compuserve Blows Its Chance to Dominate the Net


CompuServe logo
Look at today's interactive, social-media-obsessed, user-content-driven Web, and
what do you see? A spiffier version of CompuServe circa 1994. But instead of dominating
the online world, CompuServe got its butt kicked by AOL and that company's 50 billion
"free" CDs.


In the early 1990s the Compuserve Information Service had "an unbelievable set of
advantages that most companies would kill for: a committed customer base, incredible
data about those customers' usage patterns, a difficult-to-replicate storehouse
of knowledge, and little competition," says Kip Gregory, a management consultant
and author of Winning Clients
in a Wired World
. "What it lacked was probably ... the will to invest in
converting those advantages into a sustainable lead."



Then AOL came along, offering flat-rate "unlimited" pricing (versus CompuServe's
hourly charges), a simpler interface, and a massive, carpet-bombing CD marketing
campaign. Organizations that had an early presence on CompuServe forums moved over
to the Web, which CompuServe's forums were slow to support. In 1997
AOL acquired CompuServe
, and
"CompuServe classic" was finally laid to rest
last June.



CompuServe's failure wasn't due to a single missed opportunity so much as a collection
of them, says Gregory. "I really believe [CompuServe is] an important example that
reinforces a critical lesson--never stand on your heels in business."



8. Newspapers Fail to Read the Writing on the Wall--Craigslist


Craigslist.org
Newspapers are dying, and by nearly all accounts (certainly, all newspaper accounts),
Craigslist's fingerprints can be found all over the crime scene. People have blamed
the mostly free online ad service for cutting the legs out from under classified
advertising, one of the newspaper industry's cash cows.


As recently as 2005, classified ads brought more than $17.3 billion into U.S. newspapers'
coffers. Since then, the use of classified ad sites like Craigslist (as well as
Amazon, eBay, and Google) has more than doubled, according to the Pew Research Center, while classified ad revenues have been
halved.



If a consortium of newspapers had bought out Craigslist back in 2005, when classified
ad revenues were flying high, things could be quite different today. But first they
would have had to persuade Craigslist creator Craig Newmark to sell.



In a
January 2008 interview with InfoWorld
, Newmark said that his company's role
in the collapse of the newspaper industry has been greatly exaggerated--mostly by
newspapers. "I figure the biggest problems newspapers have these days have to do
with fact-checking," he remarked.



9. The Google Before Google


Open Text, an early search engine
In the mid-1990s the hottest search engine technology wasn't the work of Yahoo,
Alta Vista, Lycos, or Hot Wired; it was the Open Text Web Index. Much like Google
today, Open Text was lauded for its speed, accuracy, and comprehensiveness; by 1995
Open Text Corp. claimed that it had indexed every word on the roughly 5 million documents that constituted
the Web
at that time. That year, Yahoo incorporated Open Text's search technology
into its directory.


But two years after partnering with Yahoo, Open Text abandoned search and moved
into enterprise content management. A year later Google made its debut. The missed opportunity? Not realizing
how big search was going to be.



"If anything made Open Text special, it was that they came closer to having Google-like
technology than anyone else in their time," says Steve Parker, a communications
consultant who helped publicize Yahoo's launch of Open Text's search technology.
"With a three-year lead on Google, you have to consider whether Google would have
been forced to burn cash at a much faster pace, and if they might have run out of
time to overtake the market leader. If things had gone differently, that might have
been good enough to get [Open Text] to king of the hill."



10. Microsoft Saves a Rotting Apple


Early Apple logo
Ten years ago Apple was in serious trouble. Mac sales were being eroded by cheaper
clones from Power Computing and Radius. The company was running low on cash, its
stock was trading for around $5 a share, and it was hunting for a new CEO to replace
Gil Amelio.


Then Apple received a much-needed infusion of cash--$150 million--from a seemingly
unlikely source:
Microsoft, which also promised to continue developing its Mac Office suite
.
The deal was negotiated by then-Apple adviser Steve Jobs, whom the Macworld Expo
faithful booed at the deal's announcement. Shortly afterward, Jobs took over as
Apple's "interim" CEO. We all know what happened after that.



If Microsoft hadn't
missed its opportunity to let Apple wither
? We'd be struggling to play WinTunes
on our WinPhones. The online music and video markets would be stagnant--or worse,
controlled by Hollywood. And we'd be longing desperately for better alternatives
to Windows.





When not looking back with 20-20 hindsight, Contributing Editor Dan Tynan tends
his geek humor empire at
eSarcasm
. Follow him on Twitter @tynan_on_tech.

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MS Office 2007 Urdu interface Pack

Well, Microsoft has released Urdu Interface Pack for Office 2007. Here's the direct download link for the pack.

Download Urdu Interface Pack for MS Office 2007
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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Free ebook on C# 3.0

Our friends at Red-Gate are offering free e-book on C# 3.0. This book is for busy programmers who want a succinct and yet readable guide to C# 3.0 and LINQ.

C# 3.0 Pocket Reference, written by Joseph and Ben Albahari, tells you exactly what you need to know, without long introductions or bloated samples.

Boost your C# expertise and keep ahead of your peers!

Download the free e-book here...

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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Security updates available for Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Acrobat

Critical vulnerabilities have been identified in the current versions of Adobe Flash Player (v9.0.159.0 and v10.0.22.87) for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems, and the authplay.dll component that ships with Adobe Reader and Acrobat v9.x for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX operating systems. These vulnerabilities could cause the application to crash and could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.

Adobe recommends users of Adobe Flash Player 9.x and 10.x and earlier versions update to Adobe Flash Player 9.0.246.0 and 10.0.32.18. Adobe recommends users of Adobe AIR version 1.5.1 and earlier versions update to Adobe AIR 1.5.2. Adobe recommends users of Adobe Reader 9 and Acrobat 9 and earlier versions update to Adobe Reader 9.1.3 and Acrobat 9.1.3.

Note: As a result of this out-of-cycle Adobe Reader and Acrobat update, Adobe is planning its next quarterly security update for Adobe Reader and Acrobat for Tuesday, October 13.

Read the whole story and solution

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Thursday, August 13, 2009

12 best places to get free images for your site

Adding a few high quality photos is a great way to improve a website, article or presentation - but be careful.

A search engine like Google Images will quickly locate just about any shot you could ever want, but using them will almost certainly violate someone's copyright. What's more, search tools like TinEye mean there's a very real chance that the original photographer will find out what you've done. Which could be embarrassing, and maybe expensive, too.

Fortunately there's a simple and safe alternative. Just look for your free images in a library of stock photos, where the photographer has already given away most, or all of their rights. There are plenty of online libraries just packed with excellent free images that you can use, even commercially, for no cost at all - and we've found 12 of the very best.

1. Stock.XCHNG
This fabulous site has a library of almost 400,000 images covering every topic, and is probably the best place to start your search for free images. Stock.XCHNG has a more complex image licence agreement than some of the competition, though, so read that carefully before you start.

2. Openphoto
It first appeared back in 1998, and so it's no surprise that Openphoto has now built up a solid collection of stock photos. They're neatly arranged into well-chosen categories, and clicking any of these leads on to a thumbnail gallery of related shots.

3. Stockvault.net
Stockvault has a small but very high quality collection of stock photos, as well as logo templates, clip arts, textures and backgrounds. It's the perfect site to find graphics for your website, then, but beware - Stockvault's images are free for personal, non-commercial use only.

4. Unprofound
This site has some great photos, with no significant restrictions on their use. You don't have to register to download images, and Unprofound is strictly non-profit, so you won't be hassled by the usual collection of annoying ads. What's not to like?

5. Free Media Goo
You can browse the tiny library at Free Media Goo in just a few minutes, and the images are relatively low resolution. There are some undeniably impressive photos, though, along with some handy textures and audio samples, and there's no need to register - just download anything that appeals.

6. Morguefile
This site's best feature is its excellent search tool. You can filter by categories, keywords, size, rating, even colour, so it's easy to bypass irrelevant shots and zoom in on the photos you need. Morguefile's licence is generous and no registration is required.

7. Pixel Perfect Digital
This interesting site includes over 4,000 stock photos, neatly organised in categories from Abstract and Animals to Places and Transportation. The best part of Pixel Perfect Digital is the collection of digital art and illustrations, though; stylish images that are hard to find elsewhere.

8. Image*After
Image*After didn't impress us with its conventional photos, but the more abstract efforts - everything from electronic components to brick walls and artistic blurs - are much more compelling, especially if you're looking for an unusual background image.

9. Freerange
The Freerange site search has an annoying habit of returning photos that have nothing to do with your keywords. But keep trying, and whether you're looking for animals or objects, people, places or arty, near abstract shots, you'll find a suitable high resolution shot here.

10. Free Digital Photos
There are just a few images here - searching for "cat", say, returns only 13 photos - and only the relatively low resolution (around 640 x 480) versions are free. Free Digital Photos requires a credit if you use one, too. It does have some excellent shots, though, and could be just what you need to spice up a personal website.

11. Free Photos Bank
The Free Photos Bank site provides a typical range of free photos - people, animals, landscapes and so on. They're better at abstract shots, though, backgrounds and digital artwork, so this is a good place to start looking for those more unusual images. There's no registration required so downloading is easy, whatever you're after.

12. Flickr
As the biggest photo sharing site on the web, used by some of the world's best photographers, your image search really isn't complete without a quick check of what Flickr has to offer. Not everyone allows their photos to be used commercially, though, so visit the Advanced Search Page, then check "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content" and any other licence-related options you need before you begin. And when you find a photo you like, check on the right-hand side for a link like "Some rights reserved", and click it for details on what you can - and can't - do with the shot.

from techradar.com

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12 free downloads and tips for your laptop

1.
Clean and speed up your laptop OS


It's all too easy to fill your laptop's hard drive with files and applications, and the more software you add the slower it's likely to run. Traces of programs are even left behind after you've uninstalled them, potentially slowing your laptop further. Thankfully, it's easy to spruce things up using an application called CCleaner.

Read on to discover how to download and use it.


2.
Protect your laptop's data

Due to the portable nature of laptops and netbooks, the data it holds is unfortunately always at risk of both theft and loss. While it's impossible to keep your laptop 100% safe at all times, you can ensure that your data is kept safe, even if your laptop is stolen or lost, by encrypting it. One particularly easy free solution you can use is TrueCrypt.

Read on to discover how to download and use it.

3.
Help your laptop run cooler

While the fantastic mobility of laptops makes them great for working on the sofa or on in bed, it's always important to make sure your laptop has adequate ventilation, to avoid overheating.

Read on to find out how to keep ventilation clear.

4.
Help your battery live longer

When running a laptop at home from mains power, many users leave the battery plugged in at all times, so that it's always fully-charged for when they want to hit the road.

Find out why this is a bad idea and what you should do instead.

5.
Change your netbook screen font size

While the compact size of netbooks makes them ideal for regular travel use, their tiny screens can often be awkward to use, when reading multiple pages of text or browsing the internet.

Find out how to change default font sizes.

6.
Speed your laptop up

Most laptops that are brand new come with loads of software pre-installed – a lot of it trial-only, and many applications that you may not even use. The more software you install, the longer it'll take your laptop to start up, but with Autoruns, a free third-party app, it's a simple process to speed things up.

Read on to discover how to download and use it.

7.
Clean a dirty laptop

The first thing you need to do is shut it down and unplug the power lead. It may be wise to remove the battery as well. To clean the chassis, a damp, but not wet cloth should be enough to remove most dirt and grime.

Read on for how to clean the keyboard and screen.


8.
Clone your laptop's drive

"I have a laptop that's three years old and the hard drive is rapidly filling up. I would like to fit a higher capacity drive and I've looked at various online retailers and know the type of drive I need to buy. However, as there is a lot of data on it, is there any way to transfer the contents of my new hard drive directly onto the new one, without reinstalling Windows?"

There certainly is. Read on for how.

9.
How to upgrade your notebook's memory

Your laptop manual will normally tell you how much memory you can fit, and what type and speed you need to use. However, if you don't have that to hand, a very useful tool is Crucial's memory advisor, at www.crucial.com/uk.

Find out more about memory upgrading


10.
How to get spare laptop parts

"The DVD drive on my Asus laptop has stopped working and it no longer shows up in My Computer. It's been troublesome for a while and I think it's finally given up the ghost. Is there anyway to replace the drive, or do I need to get one from Asus?"

Read What Laptop's advice on where to get replacement drives

11.
Recover files from a damaged hard drive

Hard drives can fail without warning, although you'll normally receive some advanced notice, usually in the form or strange noises, or problems when reading or writing files. You can try downloading a program from www.ontrackdatarecovery.co.uk, called Verifile, which will tell you if any of your files are actually recoverable.

Read on for the full advice.

12.
Use RAID drives in your laptop

"I have bought a new Acer Laptop, which has two 320GB hard drives. When I enter the BIOS and create a RAID set and set it to striping I see the two drives as 320GB each. However, when I then install Windows Vista, it shows only one drive with a capacity of about 700GB. Why don't I see two drives, and can I use a partitioning program to split this large drive into two?"
Read on for What Laptop's solution.
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Wednesday, August 05, 2009

How to Learn Perfect English As a Native English Speaker - wikiHow

Even if you were born into English, it can be a tough language to master. It has widely irregular spelling and pronunciation. English borrows words from all sorts of different languages, and new terms are constantly emerging.
This site provides us with tips and helps us to improve English learning.

Read more...

Warnings

•No one is perfect. Even English mavens such as William Safire, Richard Lederer,
and Lynne Truss draw comments and criticism on their writing styles.
•Articles on the Internet (especially those on blogs) are more likely to
contain errors than printed works such as books or magazines. Internet pages are
often not checked as carefully as other written works.
•Be careful about
correcting others when you are in conversation. Some people take it the wrong
way.
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Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Tech meccas: The 12 holy sites of IT

You can't call yourself a true IT pro until you've visited at least one of the "holy sites" where computing history was made.

Tech mecca No. 1: 367 Addison Ave., Palo Alto, Calif.
Tech mecca No. 2: 2066 Crist Dr., Los Altos, Calif.
Tech mecca No. 3: 232 Santa Margarita Ave., Menlo Park, Calif.
Tech mecca No. 4: CERN -- Geneva, Switzerland
Tech mecca No. 5: Bletchley Park, England
Tech mecca No. 6: Xerox PARC -- Palo Alto, Calif.
Tech mecca No. 7: Ames Lab, Iowa State University -- Ames, Iowa
Tech mecca No. 8: Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Tech mecca No. 9: IBM's "Main Plant" -- Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Tech mecca No. 10: Room 2713, Dobie Hall, University of Texas -- Austin, Texas
Tech mecca No. 11: Kirkland House, Havard University -- Cambridge, Mass.
Tech mecca No. 12: Lyman Residence Hall, Stanford University -- Stanford, Calif.

Tech meccas: The 12 holy sites of IT Adventures in IT - InfoWorld
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Monday, August 03, 2009

ASP.NET Enterprise Single Sign-On with BlackBerry Smartphones

Here is an article about single sign-on (SSO) using ASP.Net and BlackBerry Devices.
Ther writer worked on a lot of concepts into the article, the following being a small sample of the variety.

  • Cookie authentication
  • Kerberos S4U2Self implementation
  • Custom .NET configuration section
  • Application of the Page Controller and Intercepting Filter (and why it's so cool for IIS 7) architecture patterns

One of the cool takeaways included in the sample code is a method in C# that simulates ASP.NET's Active Directory authorization check.

Here's the orignal post by the author.

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