ASP.NET Custom role provider

Easy guide to write your custom role provider

Merge splitted .mkv files

Learn how to merge splitted .mkv files (.mkv001,.mkv002...)

How to Zoom in and Zoom out your sql execution plan ?

Tool to tune your sql query

send .exe files with gmail

How to send files having blocked extension with Gmail ?

Multiple home pages in Internet explorer

How to set multiple home pages in internet explorer ?

2/28/2007

Firefox week

On request of readers and other users,Im starting Firefox edition from now.The next consecutive posts will be on the Firefox

Google blog list

Official Google blogs :

Adwords API
Google Blog
Google blog korea
Google reader blog
Google code
Inside Adsense
Inside Adwords
Inside Google siteMaps
Google desktop
Google Video
Google Maps API
Blogger Buzzz

If you know anymore blogs of Google dont forget to post them as comments

See our other posts on Software label

How to maintain your LCD screen



Instructions for cleaning LCD screens:-
Your LCD television and monitor or laptop is designed with liquid crystal technology. These screens are very sensitive to the touch and can be easily damaged. Also, because the screens are not made of glass, ingredients typical to glass treatment agents, such as Ammonia, should not be used on your laptop or flat screen monitor.Dust can quickly accumulate on the display of your TV, computer monitor, or laptop screen. That will strain reading ease and clarity. Clean your screen whenever it's necessary, but do it correctly to avoid scratches or degeneration of screen quality.These displays are not constructed to be touched. It is very important for you to exercise care in the handling of your liquid crystal display, because it is a liquid crystal display rather than a glass display. The tiny dots that make up the images on the screen are each a separate transistor/crystal. Pressure can "crack" pixels easily, and even the "rough" surface of paper towels may scratch the display surface. When the pixels are damaged, black spots fill those areas of your monitor.

Pressing and poking, whether with a dull object such as your finger, or a sharp object, such as a pen or knife, typically damages far more than one individual pixel. Imagine not being able to read lines of text on your screen, or loose image visibility in a section of your television! Extensive damage will obliterate entire areas of imaging. Therefore, keep your fingers and other objects away from the display. If you need to point out text or image details to others, "point" them out electronically by using the mouse pointer. Alternately, add a computer filter over the surface which will help prevent accidental contact, or you can maintain a distance between any "pointer" and the display's surface.

When dust, pet hair, or other dirt builds up on the display, it is important to clean the surface. Prior to treating your unit, unplug it. Then, use a soft cloth such as soft, untreated eyeglass cloths or micro fiber cleaning cloths, rather than tissues. Also, use the correct solution. Be aware that you should not use any product containing ammonia or ethanol, as these components will degrade LCD screens. Make certain the commercial computer monitor cleanser you purchase specifically states that it is for use as a screen cleaner. Instead of buying a commercial cleaner, some people make their own solution using 50% isopropyl alcohol and 50% distilled water (tap water may leave mineral spots).
Spray the cloth, not the monitor. When cleaning LCDs, laptops, computers or televisions, make sure they are unplugged. Do not place or spray the liquid directly onto your notebook or TV. Instead, dampen the special cloth slightly with the cleanser and then gently wipe your screen in a consistent motion, such as counter clockwise, rather than haphazard motions. Use the cleaner sparingly to avoid the leakage of excess fluid into the keypad.

All these suggestions apply equally to laptop displays as well as your other LCD monitors.

"Read your manufacturer's cleaning suggestions. Check your owner's manual for instructions from the manufacturer regarding their suggested methods."

Using a protective computer filter minimizes opportunity for dirt or damage to your LCD. Placing a glare filter over your computer monitor or attaching a protective cover over your laptop display provides added protection against damage or the build-up of dirt. Check our Computer filter and Glare filters by clicking on the image below for information about the various glare, privacy, and protective filters available.

2/27/2007

How to find Number of online visitors

Want to find the number of visitors on your site at any point of time????? like I having the count at the end of the page???

" Now: 1 visitor(s) online
On 26 February 2007 at around 21:32 we had 1 visitor(s)
WhoisPresent..? So... you are..? "

You have to do nothing except registering yourself on whoispresent

About who is present :

What does WhoisPresent do?
It counts the visitors on your site and gives them the opportunity to enter their names, their homepage and a quote. And it keeps track of the maximum number of visitors you ever had on the same time. That's basically it! No more, no less.

What does WhoisPresent NOT do?
It does not keep any statistics for a longer period then 10 minutes. Except for your maximum number of visitors. We don't share anything with anyone. Promissed!
Ow... and it does not guarantee anything. It's stil in beta, so we hope it stays online. If not, you'll be one of the firsts to know

Just go to Who is present - register yourself- go to edit your who is present - save your settings - get the code and paste it on your page

Gmail theater

Observe the homepage of Gmail
and you will notice a new change on the bottom side of it.A new addition is there as follows

..and videos of our engineers (New!)
See the Gmail features you love in a whole new way. Watch the videos.

Looks like Google is trying to make its users know more about the benefits of using Gmail.The description of the videos they uploaded is as follows
Provided By:
google
Gmail Theater: Why Use Gmail?
Four benefits of a Gmail account...as told by puppets.


They showed four benefits using the puppets.The video is the one embedded below:


2/26/2007

Railway Budget '07 rocks

Lalu prasad Yadav - the minister who has been through so many controversaries than anyother is always in the news ever since he became the railway minister of India.His way started with maintaining modest prices for passengers,then advertising on coaches,getting railways to profit after a long time and now reducing the prices for first time in Indian railways.This strategies made him get to IIMA and then to Horward.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad in his pro-poor Railway Budget for 2007-08 presented in the Lok Sabha on Monday announced major relief for passengers by cutting fares across the board.The minister cut passenger fares cut by 4 per cent for sleeper class rail travel.Lalu Prasad also kept the freight rates unchanged.AC Ist class fares reduced by 6 per cent in lean season and by 3 per cent in peak season.Re 1 cut in daily non-suburban train fares.For AC two-tier, the busy season reduction is 2 per cent and lean season 4 per cent.He also lowered fares for all classes of high capacity new design reserved coaches which would be 4 per cent for AC three-tier and AC chair car in busy season and 8 per cent in lean season.In sleeper class, the fare-reduction would be 4 per cent in all seasons. The railway minister announced that discounts for the busy season shall be applicable in popular trains throughout the year.Superfast charge on second class tickets has been reduced by 20 per cent from Rs 10 to Rs 8, he said.Mr.Prasad announced introduction of tourist ticket in Mumbai suburban services with facility for unlimited travel.He brought down charges for e-tickets booked on the Internet.The railway minister also cus petrol diesel freight rates by 5 per cent.
Fed up with getting your ticket reserved by standing for a longtime in Railway Reservation centres???? Lalu sir has again got something for you.
Lalu Prasad on Monday said that rail tickets will soon be sold at petrol pumps, ATM centres, et cetera to make life easier for passengers.Ticket bookings and hotel bookings can be done through railway call centres which will soon be set up, the railway minister said.He also said that 6,000 automatic ticket vending machines to be set up in next two years.
Note : New telephone number for railway inquiry to be 139 across India.

For more detailed full coverage of railway Budget'07 check this Highlights of railway budget'07

2/25/2007

Precautions for internet traders to prevent fraudulent credit card customers

Its not always the customer the one who faces problems due to these fraud people.Internet merchants also have same problems as the card users do making them suffer heavy losses.Merchants who offer a product or service online have to take the risk of losing the cost of the product sold online, plus the added cost of charge back fees, and they even face the possibility of having their merchant account terminated by the financial institutions serving them. While this cost can ultimately be passed on to the consumer, the development of this environment hurts business as a whole, and particularly hurts the small business owner.So here by I'm giving you some measures which might come handy in preventing the fraud customers.

Tracing the location of IP adress :
Ip adress which is unique for all the users can be used to find the location of a particular customer in real time as soon as the order is placed thus by alerting you when order comes from location where the probability of fraud is high.
As a result, Geolocation technology delivers data that helps merchants determine which transactions to review and which to allow. This creates a beneficial balance between the risk of fraud losses and that of blocking legitimate customers. Legitimate customers will actually welcome legitimate authentication measures, which will protect them from credit card fraud also and keep the costs of doing business on the Internet down, especially if the customer is properly informed and advised by the merchant of these protection measures.

IP address comparison :
Compare the adress from where the bill is going to be paid with the place where it is going to get delivered as there is no chance that fraud person can recieve the delivery at the bill paying adress.
Although this situation could be legitimate, but it's probably worth a phone call to the customer's phone number or other measures to confirm the order and the identity of the credit card user.

Identify Top risky locations :
Pay more attention if the card or the shipping address is in an area prone to credit card fraud. According to a clear commerce® survey, the top 12 international sources for online fraud are Ukraine, Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Egypt, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia, and Israel. The same survey also showed that the 12 countries with the lowest fraud rates are Austria, New Zealand, Taiwan, Norway, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, Hong Kong, the UK, France, and Australia.Although all the people ordering from high risky locations cant be doubted,but it can be used to what extent you should take security measured for preventing fraud.

Check email address :
Check the name of the user ordering from the email adress with the name of the credit card owner.Most of the business people who order have their own domain names.So be careful with anonymous free email service users as you cant trace their IP.Also be alert while delivering to a person with a email address in a newly opened domain.

Anonymous proxy servers :
Anonymous proxy servers allow Internet users to hide their actual IP address. The main purpose using a proxy server is to remain anonymous or to avoid being detected. While well known businesses use this to protect internal networks, fraudsters hide themselves behind anonymous proxy servers. It is not easy to detect anonymous proxy servers because they appear and disappear from time to time.

Check the delivery address :
Fraudsters prefer to stay untraceable but still need to collect physical merchandise. One way is to use a public P.O.Box, a private mailbox, or a drop shipment forwarding address as a temporary point of receiving. Never send merchandise to a public rented mailbox, a P.O. Box (except for those you identify as legitimate major companies by phoning their listed number), or shipping forwarder, because the actual location and identity of the receiver is undetectable.

Check the validity of the phone number and the zip code :
Often, merchant will discover orders with invalid zip codes or a mismatch between the zip code and area code will produce fraud rates that are significantly higher than usual. They may wish to apply more rigorous fraud prevention standards by verifying the validity of zip code and the area code. In addition, if the phone is identified as a V.O.I.P phone, offered by many services these days, a delay in shipment until the payment clears may be in order, especially for non-times sensitive items.

Compare
the credit card issuing bank’s country with the billing address country :
Another key point to bear in mind is to check the issuing country and the billing address. Make sure the issuing country and billing address country are the same. This is especially important, because minor banks may not have rigorous identification procedures.

Call the credit card issuing bank to verify the validity of credit card :
If online merchants have any suspicions about an order and need to confirm the details of the order, they can call the issuing bank and ask to confirm the general account details. This is to make sure that the card is not stolen. The issuing bank phone number is based on the first 6 digits of credit card number known as the Bank Identification Number (BIN).

Request more identification if in doubt :
While consumers value their privacy and require quick web site ordering facilities, it is important to gather sufficient customer identity details during the ordering process. The customers’ name, credit card number and expiry date is not enough. Merchants should call them for verification through phone or request a photo ID to be faxed if they have any doubts.

Measures for credit card users to prevent identity theft


One of my friends who uses a credit card has recently been cheated by fraud usage.This thing has prompted me to write this article here.There are ways to protect yourselves from these problems.Steps are
  • The most primary step is always shredding credit card offers and any documents containing personal information before throwing them in the trash so that no one get your details.
  • Know where your important documents are kept, including your passport, driver's license, and social security card, and make sure they stay safe by checking everyday.
  • Immediately report the non-receipt or disappearance of any mail from your inbox which you should have received from a credit card issuer or your bank.
  • When credit card bills or banking statements arrive, look them over then and there and Contact your credit card company or bank directly if you spot any unusual or unauthorized charges.
  • Investigate any credit card or other bills, invoices, or receipts for good or services you have not ordered.
  • Get a copy of your credit report from all three major issuers and look for any items that are unfamiliar.
  • When moving, be sure to get your mail forwarded to your new address. Then, follow up by ordering a copy of your credit report two to three months after the move.
  • Keep a list of the phone numbers you need to call if credit cards or debit cards are stolen.
  • If you have a safe deposit box at the bank, consider storing valuable financial information there.
    Hope these things might help you in preventing your cedit card from being used by some fraud person.If you have any other suggestion for my readers,please post it as a comment

Yahoo! Messenger fo Windows Vista


Yahoo messenger says it has built the new yahoo messenger for Windows Vista from the ground up specifically for Microsoft Windows Vista, this all-new version combines the reliable and easy-to-use features you've always loved from Yahoo! Messenger with the cutting-edge experience of this new operating system.
The features of this new messenger will be
* Instant message, voice, webcam video, and more
* Use the integrated Yahoo! Messenger Sidebar gadget to keep up with the friends that matter most
* Also add Windows Live™ Messenger friends to your contact list to see when they're online and IM them
* Keep conversations organized by dragging and dropping them into one tabbed window
* Brand new emoticons, program icons and alert sounds
* Instantly change the look and feel of your Yahoo! Messenger interface
* Automatic groups are created in your contact list based on your Yahoo! interests (i.e. Yahoo! Sports Fantasy Football league)

Check out the video preview

Also check out Yahoo ! messenger hidden emotions

Yahoo messenger ! Hidden emotions

Emotions or smileys are little animations that add colour to your chat windows beyond the text you type.If you use yahoo! messenger you wont be able to see all the emotions but when you use other messenger clients like Gaim,you can see all the hidden emotions.Still you can use these emotions by typing the shortcuts of them in your chat window.Click on the image to enlarge if you are unable to see the shortcuts in image below

Also check out my Gtalk review

2/24/2007

Technocrati problems

Technocrati which most people prefer to rank a blog is in the news these days regarding its updating of blog ranks, links that connect to the blog and its ping service.All the big bloggers has reported this problem like problogger.
Technocrati team is to be appreciated for achieving such a success in a short span of time But these latest problems are worrying some bloggers a bit as they want to use the potential of the service.There are four issues that are considered to be the major ones these days.

ping service :
I had been observing from a lot of days about the indexing of my claimed blog Five point someone
. As I look on to the posts,I found that very a few of them got indexed by the technocrati i.e ones which are there whn i submitted the blog to Technocrati.I tried to ping them through pingomatic but no use as they didnt update my blog details from the day i submitted it in technocrati.Here by im posting a screen shot of the problem.It has been long time I changed the blog title from Anything 2 everything to Five point someone.But Technocrati still shows the same old title.As per Technocrati no one linked to my blog so far But i have more than 11 pages on google search showing people linking to me.And it has not been updated since 116 days :D

Top 100 problem :
Some blogs even when getting raced into the top 100 list still didn't get listed in the top 100 list due to the admin not updating the page..

API problems :
problems with other site’s trying to access websites details through Technorati’s API.

Customer service problems :
Many of the readers mail me that they sent a lot of mails to the Technocrati team regarding to the problem but all of them are answered with silence from the customer support which is quite frustrating.

As Technocrati is still used by most of people to rank a blog ,it is better for them to work on these problems than getting stormed by the increasing number of bloggers and their posts

proxy

On requests of users from colleges where orkut and myspace is blocked, i came up with new proxy segment by embedding the homepage of the proxy site.Let the frame below load fully and then login yourself to orkut.Remove the tick on checkbox of remove all scripts for browsing orkut.



Feedburner now reports number of Google subscribers

Feeburners official blog reports that Starting with Saturday February 17th subscriber reporting, FeedBurner publishers will be able to see how many Google Reader and Google Personalized Homepage subscribers they have.This information will show up in tonight's subscriber reports (meaning that most of you will start to see the data on Saturday morning, U.S. Central Time).

What does this mean? This is one more data point to help you understand how many people have asked to receive your feed (aka "subscribers"). For those who are interested in the particulars, the number that Google is reporting is the total number of Google users who've subscribed to your feed in Reader or with Personalized Homepage.

While the subscriber number reflects overall interest in your content, keep in mind that there are plenty of other metrics within FeedBurner that help you more fully understand distribution and consumption. Now would be a good time to remind you that you can track clickthroughs for each item in your feed, and each item will show a breakdown on an aggregator-by-aggregator basis to help you understand which clients drive the most traffic to your site.still TotalStats service measures Item Views (actual reads of feed items) and Reach (number of unique people who viewed or clicked on content). And feedburner free StandardStats website metrics will provide you with numerous additional details on your inbound traffic from aggregators.

Want to build your subscriber numbers with Google's services? Make subscribing easier for your visitors. Look for the Google subscription button as an option in both our BrowserFriendly and ChickletChooser services for FeedBurner feeds in your account. Both give you the ability to offer Google as a subscription option in your feed and on your website with just a few clicks.

5 tips for getting a page rank,PR 7

There is a blogger who says that he had came up with 2 new domains/blogs getting PR7 in less than 6 months.He suggested five tips which can come in quite handy for you people also.Here are the 5 tips that he shared.
  • Get links from old and highly trusted domains.
  • Get site-wide links from a huge site with 150,000+ pages (a large forum perhaps).
  • Get a few deep links from relevant articles or content.
  • No massive and low-level directory submissions.
  • Avoid link exchanges, esp. from new domains.
If you have any tips regarding increasing page rank,post as comment

Quick tips for organising and using your mailbox better


EMAIL - the latest heart of the Internet world.Everyday we get lot of emails in hundreds ranging from news,personal messages,RSS feeds,instant messages,social bookmarking links.This becomes a problem if the numbers keep growing on continuously.When someday if you have to find a important email how will you find it???Here are some tips which might come handy in organising your email archive.[May be some services like Gmail give you enough space and search feature but nothing makes you feel good watching your inbox than organising it ]

Searching or Filtering or Tagging :
These three are the important features which you can use in organising your inbox.Search in inbox is sometimes but most of times comes up with lots of results.People who dont like to sit and organise their inbox mostly prefer this searching.Filtering is better than searching as filtering shows all same type of mails in one folder.It sends the mails to their respective folders and when you search in a folder,the accuracy of result will also become more.If you spare sometime everyday for this ,you can feel comfortable in later times.Tagging is something like labelling the mails for search so that search can find faster.There are softwares available for doing the three of these things.

Organise your folders :
If you are into filing and foldering your mailbox,take the time to think about what’s the most important dimension of e-mail recall for you.One failing of most current e-mail applications is that any given message can only be filed in a single folder.So think about what you’re most likely to remember when you want to search a message in the future. If it’s the sender, you should build your hierarchy based on people. If it’s the project, then a set of project folders makes sense. Avoid starting to build a system where you have some folders for people and some for projects

using desktop search :
If you are a windows better,there are some applications which can help you index your mail box like Google Desktop, Windows Desktop Search ... If you are a MAC user you have spotlight there.For windows users they have to check which one of the applications is better for them as each of them differs in terms of usability,showing previews and ability to search faster.

Email organising software :
Programs like Nelson Email Organizer and Omea Pro (both for Microsoft Outlook) provide an indexing and filing layer on top of your regular e-mail application. Typically these programs add features such as the ability to file a single message in more than one folder , more thorough indexing, faster searching, and their own system of applying meta data to messages. ClearContext IMS Pro (also for Outlook) combines automatic project-based filing with a system like automatic prioritisation system for incoming e-mails.

Organise your sent items :
If you’re a big sender, don’t neglect that huge folder full of sent items. It might make more sense to create individual Sent Items folders for each contact, and file the appropriate messages where they’re easy to find.

Use Virtual Folders :
Mail calls them Smart Mailboxes. Outlook calls them Search Folders. In either case, the aim is same.you can set up a folder whose contents depend on criteria you set, rather than messages you file in it. Obvious uses include folders for unread mail, old but unanswered mail, mail from particularly important people, and newsletters identified by subject line. Virtual folders are another good way to create the illusion that things are filed in more than one place.

A final destination :
There is always this way waiting for spam mails,junk ones,office jokes,news letters,RSS updates...... in your mail box.Just select them and press delete and you are done.Mails which are important to you like your project related ones or a mail from your sweet heart... can be saved and its better to delete the rest junk messages as they can be a havoc in long terms

If you have any suggestions on organising the mail box please post it as a comment.

Also check out my other posts related to software

No reservations for Creamy people


Great news for those who says "No to reservations".Supreme court bench has given a new order in this context regarding to whom this reservations should apply to.The new reservations will be applicable to only who are economically deprived in backwards caste also.This decision is welcomed by most of the people because most of the times the motto of the reservations is getting diverted as highly settled people of backward castes are enjoying the benefits and the ones for whom they are meant to like economically deprived dalits and all never get them.As per the ruling reservations wont apply to creamy layer of people I.e people who are holding good posts in govt sector jobs and those who have high income levels..A bit of relaxation is given to the people from kerala regarding the max income level for reservations which has been set to 3 lakhs per annum.This move is welcomed by students from most of the parts of the country.Post your comments on this ruling by the supreme court.

2/22/2007

How to search for free books on internet

Here is a simple trick for finding free ebooks on Google with extensions .chm,.pdf,.zip.Its not targeted for any particular book.Copy the text of link below to your Google search box or click on the link

inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" +("/ebook"|"/book") +(chm|pdf|zip)

The above query removes all the html pages and searches for folders like ebook or book and search for file types chm, pdf and zip.You can add more extensions to the list by editing the above text,

Note: You may find copyrighted content or illegal books for which Im not responsible

New pricing of adsense referrals


Google Adsense team has notified its users about the new pricing of Adsense and adwords referrals which are looking quite profitable to the publishers than the earlier ones.Earlier publishers used to treat these just as some mere waste of their space as they are able to make very little money with these.But new pricing is looking good for some publishers atleast for the big boys out there. AdSense Referrals:
  • When a publisher who signed up for Google AdSense through your referral earns their first $5 within 180 days of sign-up, you will be credited with $5.
  • When that same publisher earns $100 within 180 days of sign-up and is eligible for payment, you will be credited with an additional $250.
  • If, in any 180-day period, you refer 25 publishers who each earn more than $100 within 180 days of their respective sign-ups and are all eligible for payout, you will be awarded a $2,000 bonus (bonus payouts are limited to 1 per year).
AdWords Referrals:
  • When an advertiser you refer spends $5 within 90 days of sign-up (in addition to the $5 sign-up fee) you will be credited with $5.
  • When that same advertiser spends $100 within 90 days of sign-up, you will be credited with an additional $40.
  • If, in any 180 day period, you refer 20 advertisers who each spend more than $100 within 90 days of their respective sign-ups, you will be awarded a $600 bonus (bonus payments are limited to 1 per year).
Google still pays very less for its firefox referrals which depends on the number of users using that referral in that country.Google pays less for Firefox in India as people in large numbers use it.Lets hope it will liberalise some rules for other referrals also.
Technorati Tags:
,

2/20/2007

How to add RAID drivers and Service Pack 2 to your original Windows CD!???:Slipstreaming XP

slipstreaming—the mystical art of creating an up-to-the-minute Windows XP setup CD with all the latest patches preinstalled.I’ll help you add RAID or Serial ATA controller drivers to your CD so you won’t need a floppy drive (or the F6 key) to install Windows.
Things you need:

· Windows XP setup CD

· Internet connection

· CD burner

· ISO Buster (www.isobuster.com)

· Nero 6 or 7

step1:
First download the standalone version of windows XP service pack2.Go to download.microsoft.com and look under the Windows XP section or simply run Windows Update from Internet Explorer.While you’re at it, download the latest drivers for your RAID or Serial ATA controller. If you add them to your install CD, you won’t need to use an old-fashioned floppy drive to install Windows. For an add-in RAID or SATA card, look for the drivers on the web site of your controller chip’s manufacture.

Step2
Our next objective is to extract Service Pack 2 to a folder so we can update our existing Windows setup files. Open the command prompt by clicking Start, Run, and typing cmd.exe. Use the cd (change directory) command to navigate to the folder where you just saved the SP2 executable in the previous step. (The syntax for cd is cd , so if you saved the SP2 executable to, say, C:\Downloads, you would type cd C:\Downloads to go there.) Extract the SP2 files by typing xpSP2 –x, where xpSP2 is the name of the SP2 executable you downloaded. When prompted for a destination to extract the files to, enter C:\xpSP2.Once the files have been extracted, insert your Windows XP setup CD into an optical drive and copy its entire contents to a different folder on your hard drive. For the sake of simplicity, use C:\xpsetupcd as the folder. Now, return to the command prompt and type the following command: C:\xpSP2\i386\update\update /s:C:\xpsetupcd. This will update your existing Windows setup files with the new code contained in Service Pack 2. A message box will pop up to notify you when the process is complete.

step3:
. Open the folder to which you copied your Windows XP CD (C:\xpsetupcd) and create a subfolder called $OEM$. Then, create a subfolder of $OEM$ called $1 and a subfolder of $1 called drivers. The resulting path should be C:\xpsetupcd\$OEM$\$1\drivers. This is where Windows Setup will look for drivers that aren’t contained in its standard driver library. For organizational purposes, make a subfolder within drivers named for the type of driver it will contain—for instance, create a RAID folder for RAID drivers or an SATA folder for Serial ATA drivers. You can use any name, as long as it has fewer than eight characters.

With the aforementioned folder structure in place, copy the Windows XP RAID/SATA drivers directly into the folder you created above (we used C:\xpsetupcd\$OEM$\$1\drivers\RAID). If your drivers came in a self-extracting executable rather than a zip file, you may be able to extract its contents manually by opening it in a program like WinRAR. (Alternately, you can run the self-extracting executable, then dig around in your system’s TEMP directory—usually C:/documents and settings/YourUsername/LocalSettings/Temp until you find the right directory). Finally, locate the SYS file for your RAID/SATA controller from among the files you just extracted; it should be named after your specific controller (e.g. fasttx2k.sys for a Promise FastTrak TX2 RAID controller). The drivers for different operating systems may be split into distinct folders, so make sure you find the SYS file that’s intended for Windows XP. Once you find the SYS file, copy it to the i386 folder of your Windows CD (C:\xpsetupcd\i386).

step4:

Now that we’ve added our RAID/SATA driver files to the mix, we need to tell Windows Setup about the existence of these drivers and how to use them. But unless you happen to have this information memorized—and if you do, this might be a good time to turn off your computer and spend some time in the real world—you’ll need to look it up in your driver’s INF file. This file is usually found in the same place as the SYS file you located in the previous step and will probably have the same name, albeit with an INF extension. Open the INF file in Notepad and copy the PCI identifier string, which is a series of characters beginning with PCI\VEN—for instance, PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3376. There may be other text on the same line as the identifier string; if this is the case, start at the first occurrence of PCI\VEN and copy the text up to but not including the last period (or the end of the line, whichever comes first).

Next, open TXTSETUP.SIF (situated in C:\xpsetupcd\i386) and paste your PCI identifier string under the [HardwareIdsDatabase] section of that file. At the end of the string, add an equal-sign followed by the driver name in quotes. In the case of our Promise RAID controller, the resulting line is: PCI\VEN_105A&DEV_3376 = “fasttx2k”. Note: If your driver’s INF file contains multiple PCI identifier strings, copy all of them into TXTSETUP.SIF.

Now scroll down to the [SourceDisksFiles] section of TXTSETUP.SIF and add the following text:

driver_filename.sys = 1,,,,,,_x,4,1

where driver_filename.sys is the name of your RAID /SATA driver’s SYS file. Note that you should include the .sys here. Then, under the [SCSI.Load] section, enter:

driver_filename = driver_filename.sys,4

Once again, driver_filename is the name of your driver’s SYS file. Note the lack of a .sys suffix on the left side of the equal-sign.

Finally, in the [SCSI] section of the file, add the following:

driver_filename = “RAID/SATA Device Name”

You can enter whatever you want for “RAID/SATA Device Name,” but we recommend using a meaningful description (such as the name of your RAID/SATA controller). Finally, save and close TXTSETUP.SIF.

step5:

You’re almost there. In this step, we’ll make a file called WINNT.SIF in the i386 folder of our Windows setup files (C:\xpsetupcd\i386). This file can be used to create an unattended installation routine—a subject beyond the scope of this how-to—but we’ll simply use it to point Windows to the drivers we’ve slipstreamed. Create WINNT.SIF and enter the following:

[Data]
AutoPartition=0
MsDosInitiated=”0”
UnattendedInstall=”Yes”

[Unattended]
UnattendMode=ProvideDefault
OemPreinstall=Yes
OemSkipEula=Yes
NoWaitAfterTextMode=1
NoWaitAfterGUIMode=1

WaitForReboot=”No”
TargetPath=\WINDOWS
DriverSigningPolicy=Ignore
OemPnPDriversPath=

[GuiUnattended]
OEMSkipWelcome = 1

[UserData]
ProductKey=
FullName=”“
OrgName=”“

You’ll need to customize the OemPnPDriversPath line by entering the path to the INF file for your RAID/SATA driver (for instance if your drivers are in C:\xpsetupcd\i386\$OEM$\$1\drivers\RAID use: OemPnPDriversPath=drivers\RAID\FastTrack\WinXP).

There are a few other fields you may want to customize before you close WINNT.SIF. Type your product key, name, and company name in the ProductKey, FullName, and OrgName fields respectively to avoid having to enter them during setup. And if you’d like to install Windows to a folder other than C:\WINDOWS, edit the TargetPath field as needed.

winnt_sif.jpg
WINNT.SIF is a powerful file that allows you to customize and automate many parts of the Windows installation process.


Step 6 – Prepare your bootable CD and burn it

Our next task is to extract the boot image from our original Windows XP disc so we can use it to make our slipstreamed CD bootable as well. With your original XP setup CD inserted, launch ISO Buster and select “Bootable CD” from the left pane. In the right pane, right-click Microsoft Corporation.img and choose “Extract Microsoft Corporation.img.” Extract this file to the folder where you copied your XP setup files (C:\xpsetupcd).

Fire up Nero Burning ROM (or EZ CD Creator, or any other CD burning app) and go to the New Compilation window (click “Close Wizard” if Nero’s wizard comes up). Select “CD-ROM (Boot)” from the left pane and open the Boot tab. For “Source of boot image data” choose “Image file” and use the Microsoft Corporation.img file you just extracted. Check to enable expert settings, and set “Kind of emulation” to “No emulation” and “Number of loaded sectors” to 4. (These instructions will vary if you use another application, of course.)

Next, head over to the ISO tab and set “File/Directory name length” to “ISO Level 2.” Ensure that “Format” is set to “Mode 1” and “Character Set” to “ISO 9660,” and make certain all four checkboxes on this tab are checked (“Joliet,” “Allow pathdepth of more than 8 directories,” “Allow more than 255 characters in path,” and “Do not add the ‘;1’ ISO file version extension”). Finally, click the Label tab and set the “Volume Label” field to the value used by your original Windows XP CD—this is the name that appears next to your CD-ROM drive in My Computer when your XP CD is inserted.

At this point, we’re almost ready to rock. Click the “New” button to open the Nero File Browser, and then locate the folder where you copied your Windows XP CD. Open the folder and add its entire contents to your CD image. When you’re all set, mash the “Burn” button and bask in the glory of your shiny new slipstreamed Windows XP CD, replete with RAID/SATA drivers and Service Pack 2!

nero.jpg
Make your slipstreamed Windows CD bootable by extracting the boot image from your original Windows CD and feeding it to Nero
source:http://maximumpc.com/2005/01/how_to_slipstre.html
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2/19/2007

When your monitor gets rotated

Most of time people sitting on win2000 or xp press some keys by fault and finds their screen rotated by 180 degrees.Most of my friends call me about this problem which is now forcing me to post this article
keys that control the screen rotation :
cntrl +alt + down arrow --- monitor turns upside down
cntrl +alt + up arrow ---Reset the monitor to normal position

If ever you find your screen rotated press the ctrl+alt + down and get it set.
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2/18/2007

Femina Miss India Hunt is on now


The Femina Miss India Pageant which has been the platform for Indian beauties to enter the world of fashion and glamour, now in its 44th year, has commenced its search for icons to represent India at international pageants in 2007. Two trendsetters of the fashion world—Femina Miss India and Pantaloons—have joined hands in the hunt for that winning combination of beauty and brains.Past winners of Femina Miss India such as Sushmita Sen, Aishwarya Rai, Lara Dutta, Priyanka Chopra and Dia Mirza have brought great pride to the country by winning international pageants. Liberty and Tanishq have scaled up their association with the event as associate sponsors. Liberty is also the Official Footwear Partner and Tanishq is the Official Crown and Jewellery Partner. For the seventh year now, Richfeel Trichology Centre continues as the Official Hair Care Experts. Young single women between 18 and 25 years (as of Jan 31, 2007), who have both style and substance can apply. Entries close on March 4, 2007.
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Nice Firefox extension for orkut users

If You Have Logged In To Orkut With "Remember Me On This Computer" Checkbox Checked & While Closing The Browser Window You Have Not Logged Out, Still The Next Time You Open Browser & Open http://www.orkut.com, You Are Asked For password
With Its Autologin Feature, You Can Login, Without Entering The Password Again.
Also, If You Are Logged In Gmail With "Remember Me On This Computer" Checkbox Checked, You Get Logged Into Orkut Automatically On Opening http://www.orkut.com
It Uses The 'Cookie' Of Gmail/Orkut To Login.
It just sees whether your Cookie is present or not...
Your Password Is Never Checked.


View "My Scrapbook" Link On Each Of Orkut Pages, Not just On Your Profile/Home Pages.

☺ "View Scrapbook" Link In Front Of Profile Link, so that you can go to their scrapbook, without going to their profile.
Similarly,
☺ "View Album" Link In Front Of Profile Link
☺ "View Message" Link In Front Of Profile Link

☺ "View Community Topics" Link In Front Of Community Link
☺ "View Community Events" Link In Front Of Community Link
☺ "View Community Members" Link In Front Of Community Link

☺ Copy Smileys within the scraps/posts so that you can copy Entire scrap/post, including the smileys [:)]
☺ Replace Orkut Smileys With Animated Smileys. Don't you think, the orkut smileys are static images, would you not like some 'animated' smileys.

☺ Replace The Links In Scraps/Posts Which Point To Images By Their Corresponding Images. So that you don't have to click the link to view the images.
Similarly...
☺ Replace Links To SWFs By Their Corresponding SWFs.
& above all, each of these feature can be turned on or off individually.

☺Also You Can Right Click On Any Profile Link To Go To Scrapbook/Album/'Send Message' (& others) pages of any Profile.

☺& You Can Right Click On Any Community Link To Go To Members/Topics/Events (& others) pages of any Community.

☺You Can Search Within Your (or in general anyone's) scrapbook.

Similarly You Can Search for a Topic within community topics or a Post in a community topic. or u can also search within messages...
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2/17/2007

Youtube videos in Google search

Searches for images or research papers or projects on Google may now return videos from the California-based Internet search giant's YouTube unit.Google, which acquired YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion, says the change is part of its effort to differentiate YouTube from its similar Google Video service.To get returns that include YouTube videos, added Thursday, users must use the video search tab, the company said.Google Video's goal is to be the definitive search engine for video Internet-wide, not just on Google's sites, said David Eun, company vice president.For now, Google Video and YouTube remain separate, with both offering space to upload and share videos. Over time, users will be encouraged to share videos on YouTube and search video on Google.Including YouTube videos in Google's video search will "dramatically increase video viewing on the Web.People will start finding lots of videos they never even knew existed.Rivals Yahoo and AOL have separate video search engines, but neither link to YouTube.Lets see what will be their next step
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Microsoft in mud


Software giant Microsoft corp. has landed itself in trouble when it offered to pay a blogger to change technical articles on the community-produced Web encyclopedia site.While Wikipedia is known as the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, founder Jimmy Wales and moderators have blocked public-relations firms, campaign workers and anyone else perceived as having a conflict of interest from posting slanting entries. So paying for Wikipedia copy is considered a definitely considered wrong.Microsoft acknowledged it had approached the writer and offered to pay him for the time it would take to correct what the company was sure were inaccuracies in Wikipedia articles on an open-source document standard and a rival format put forward by Microsoft.In a blog posting Monday, the blogger said that he was surprised to be approached by Microsoft but figured he would accept the offer to review the Wikipedia articles because he considered it important to make sure technical standards processes were accurately described.But the proper way for Microsoft would have been to write or commission a "white paper" on the subject with its interpretation of the facts, post it to an outside Web site and then link to it in the Wikipedia articles' discussion forums.
source :CNN

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Engineering today


Disclaimer : The article is not targeted on anyone.If any finds it related to them, dont take it personally
A small child sitting idle at his home watching TV or A Schoolboy watching his dad's motorcycle or some small kid who sees the today's electronic gadgets asks his elders "who made this???How are these things made???" The immediate reply from his dad is "Engineers make this and they know how to make these".Interesting finds the child.He sets his career aim as to become a engineer someday.Depending on the things he love he choses the type of Engineer.If he loves cars he wants to become Mechanical Engineer,If he love TV,he wants to become electronic engineer....But the thing is no one understands what is engineering until they are into it.That kid choses the branch of engineering which most of others prefer.There is no TV for that child to build here or there is no practical involving a car.All he sees out there is small of chips and physics of engines..In some colleges they dont even find this.
Right now in India ,some states like Andhra Pradesh,Tamil Naidu... have atleast 3 engineering colleges on an average in each town.There will be a single big building on the outskirts of the city named as "XXXXXX engineering college".These colleges dont have Masters courses or above undergraduate courses.They dont even have labs.There are no campus placements.{You have to pay money to some external job consultants to sit in campus placements [E.g JKC in Andhra pradesh]} . They have faculty who completed Btech from the same college and working for 5,000 rupees.I have a lecturer of engineering college staying beside my house who is a computer science lecturer and she/he don't know terms which i know in the computer languages.I went to their labs and I find computers loaded with windows 98,ball mouses and no connectivity.There will be one or two computers with dial up internet and the college charges 10rs per hour from students to use that.Students don't even know how to use Google search ,All they know is using yahoo messenger to chat.The only project they do in their engineering is the final semester project.There will be no classroom projects for them in between.They don't have knowledge about higher studies as they don't have training and placement cell.They have to approach educational consultants for this thing also.OOOPS!! i forgot these colleges have library which might have some books each 1 copy taught in their classroom.They don't have research Journals,tech magazines,publications and all.Since they dont have proper labs there is no chance of them looking into research.Most of the students have the aim of just getting a IT job.There is one thing with these colleges.No one scores below 60% in their engineering in the last irrespective of the knowledge.You might want to know how??? Simple.Same questions appear in their question paper every year.All you have to do is just buy a test paper booklet and read the questions given in the previous 5 year papers.If you do this properly you can get 90%.Most of my friends studying engineering in local colleges say this logic to me.Whenever I go home with 70% in engineering,i find a lot of my friends who have more than 90% asking me why I have less percentage as I scored high total in my 10+2 above many of them. And to the people knowledge never matters.What they compares is percentages.Some idle people residing in my neighborhood goes to my home and tells my dad " your son is ruined.His percentage is less.i think he is roaming in the city".This thing irritates the people studying in best universities as they have to screw themselves the whole day to bring a decent percentage in engineering.I'm not blaming the every student there as there is some exceptional talent standing out there when sent to good engineering colleges can create wonders unlike getting screwed up in life.The only job these local engineers know is IT job and they dont even know the company names of their core engineering subject.They will never look into core engineering jobs as it requires a lot of knowledge.The don't have even proper residential facilities.Then what does they have??????
AICTE approval
AICTE gives approval to these colleges and its ready even to give more colleges to the towns if the institute owner has got some political influence.What does this AICTE wants from these colleges??I dont think they want to make some engineers out of these colleges.

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