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iPhone vs Stone!

This is a cool comparison of the iPhone 3G [2008] vs the Stone [50,000 BC].

It really was a close contest, but the stone managed to win in the end (its way cheaper).

iPhone vs Stone

The Mac Pro

It is the among the most powerful computer’s in the world (and highly expensive) and is manufactured by Apple. I customised one for fun, and made one hell of a Mac.

Basic (Apple’s Recommendation)

Processor: 2 Intel Xeon Quad-Core Processors – 2.8 Ghz x 8 = 22.4 Ghz

RAM: 2×1GB = 2GB

Hard Drive: 320GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA at 3Gb/s

Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB

Optical Drive: 16x Dual Layer SuperDrive to play burn and play CDs, DVDs and DL-DVDs

Apple Mouse: Apple Mighty Mouse

Apple Keyboard and Documentation: Apple Keyboard + User’s Guide

Total Price: $2,799.00 [USD] = Rs 1,30,231.70 [INR]

Extreme (My Recommendation)

Processor: 2 Intel Xeon Quad-Core Processors – 3.2 Ghz x 8 = 25.6 Ghz

RAM: 8×4GB = 32GB

Hard Drive: 4×1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s = 4TB [4096GB]

Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5GB

Optical Drive: Two 16x Dual Layer SuperDrive to play burn and play CDs, DVDs and DL-DVDs

Apple Mouse: Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse

Apple Keyboard and Documentation: Apple Wireless Keyboard + User’s Guide

Apple Displays: Two Apple Cinema HD Displays [30" Flat Panel]

Additional Software: [i] iWork ‘08 [Mac equivalent to Office]

[ii] Final Cut Express [Video Editing]

[iii] Aperture 2 [Photo Editing]

[iv] Logic Express 8 [Music Creation]

Total Price: $23,422.00 [USD] = Rs 10,86,546.51 [INR]

Hows that ?!? Imagine an 8-Core processor, 1.5GB NVIDIA card [No need for 3D Analyze!], 32GB RAM.

Hacking – Part II

This isn’t really a hacking method, but it certainly gives the user a fright. Its a method to make a countdown timer, which shuts down the computer.

There are some DOS commands involved here. So let’s get familiar with those.

After typing shutdown you may place any of these attributes.

-s = Shutdown/Power-Off

-r = Restarts

-t = Sets a time limit for shutdown. Should only be used with -s or -l. Else, it leads to Logging Off, regardless of the time limit set

-c “xx” = Adds a comment to basically “explain reason” of shutdown. xx can be any message less than 127 characters and should always be in quotes.

-l = Log off account. Takes you back to the welcome page

-a = Cancels a system shutdown. Very handy to stop an intentionally or virally intitiated shutdown.

-f = Forces running applications to shutdown without warning (no Error Report messages!)

There! Now that you’re done, lets type the code.

1] Go to Start –> Run

2] Type shutdown and the appropriate code for desired behaviour. Here is an example…

Give the message “Your PC was hacked by the Devil…” and shutdown the computer after 80 seconds.

shutdown -s -c “Your PC was hacked by the Devil…” -t 80

The only way to stop this is by typing this in the Run dialog box:

shutdown -a

If you want, you may create a desktop shortcut with the above code as the target, to stop an initiated shutdown.

Windows 7 Screenshots

Yes, it’s official. After being declared as the biggest failure of 2007, the Windows Vista successor Win-doze 7 (also known as Vienna) will finally be rolled out by Microsoft sooner (or later, considering Microsoft’s Habit of making us wait for junk, like Wee-sta).

So here are some screenshot of the upcoming and …uhm… “Next-Generation” OS by Microsoft.

Calculator

Computer

Desktop Context Menu

Paint

Personlalize Desktop

Sidebar Gadgets

Start Menu

System Icons

Windows Media Player

Wordpad

Hacking – Part I

A lot of people want to know how to hack. Here I start a series called Hacking, which will give you small tips on how to hack.

Make a Batch File

1] Click Start. Then click Run. Alternatively, you can press WinKey+R, which is the shortcut for Run.

Click Start --> Run

2] In the Run dialog box, type “notepad” without the quotes, and hit enter.

Type "notepad"

3] In notepad, type

start x.bat

x.bat

Here, x can be anything – quake3, virus, phone, 42, etc. But remember to but .bat at the end, or the virus will not work.

Type it

4] Hit Ctrl+S (Save) and give the name as x.bat. Again, if you replaced x by anything else, the filename should also be changed.

Save

5] After saving, your virus looks like an innocent, visible file. A tiny icon of <1 KB. Even antivirus cannot detect it!

X

Scan

Selected My Documents Folder

No viruses!

6] Now to mask it to make it attractive, so that the user clicks on it. Let’s change the icon. Right-click and drag the file and once you leave the button, you will get a drop down menu. Click “Create Shortcuts Here”

Drag and click

7] Right-click the shortcut and click properties. Click Change Icon in the Properties window under Shortcut tab.

Shortcut Properties

8] Click OK on the error message and click an appropriate icon. Click OK twice. I chose Internet Explorer, as the user can easily be tricked into clicking on this.

Choose Icon

That’s it! You’ve made a virus! You can drop the shortcut anywhere on the user’s computer

Conflict!

There was this info on LuisDS’s Flickr page that Microsoft’s new ad campaign “I Am A PC” was made on Mac. He even had a screenshot of it.

Am I A PC?

Notice that the Software is “Adobe Photoshop CS3 Macintosh “. LOL! And the e-mail id is sean@windows.com! But as Lithium1377 said “it would make sense. if you are going to be creative, go mac!”

So I went to Microsoft’s ad page, and downloaded the same picture. In the picture properties in Windows, i saw:

I Am A PC on a PC

The Software is now “Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows “. Are the properties affected by the OS? No! Microsoft ripped the old image and put up as new one, with changed metadata or saved in Ps CS3 for Windows.

These guys can’t even edit metadata… I wonder if Sean still has his job.

But all this is not new. Why does Microsoft make everything in Adobe Flash, when they have it’s competitor Silverlight? Only Steve Ballmer knows ;D

Review: The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight is really one of the best of the superhero movies ever made in the history of films. Recently, Batman Begins was released, with Christian Bale as Batman. And it was pretty good, though boring in parts.

The Dark Knight is a major improvement over Batman Begins. The plot is good, although a bit tricky to understand at times. There are some really great ideas of fear, given in the movie, which I prefer to discuss later, to avoid spoilers.

The IMDb profile

The plot is basically revolves around The Joker, who loves to cause destruction and havoc, as chaos is what he enjoys. His aim is to destroy Gotham in fun and create fear in the minds of the people. He makes some really cool destruction plans, which forces viewers to think – what if it really happened? It is quite practical that someone could do something like him.

The tough part comes when the Joker declares Batman to unmask himself and show the others his true identity, failing which there would be a murder each day. Harvey Dent, a new and aggressive cop and James Gordon try to stop him at every move, but in vain. It’s all up to Batman to save the city before it blows up.

What inspires you the most are the action sequences. These aren’t as hardcore as the ones from Die Hard 4.0 and The Matrix: Reloaded. In fact, they’re subtle and nice. You are never bored of them, so it proves to be a good family watch.

But The Dark Knight isn’t only about Batman and his action, his fights, etc. It’s about the Joker. Heath Ledger, who stars as the villain, known simply as “the Joker” has done a magnificent job. His acting is superb and very natural. As a joker, he’s supposed to be comic and eerie at the same time. He does this job perfectly, while establishing an aura of fear and amazement amongst the audience. Rest in peace, Mr. Ledger. The guys at DC Comics decided to use Heath Ledger’s controversial and sudden suicidal death as the main marketing strategy for their film. That is why, the movie’s marketing strategy is known as “Why So Serious?” which is also the tagline and favourite dialogue of the Joker.

The other actors aren’t bad at all. Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne is very good, and his excellent acting skills make you realize about the problems he encounters while being the city’s sole protector. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent plays the role of the city’s “unmasked” protector and saves Gotham City from criminals. Watch out for his amazing performance as Two-Face in the last few minutes of the movie.  Maggie Gyllenhall plays Rachel Dawes, Bruce and Harvey’s love interest.

In all, The Dark Knight is an excellent movie. It has all the cool elements one would need. Its not a mindless action flick. And Heath Ledger should definately win an Oscar for his performance as the Joker.

Spoilers

There are some great ideas of spreading terror, in The Dark Knight: Here are a few, and some good moments:

1] The Joker shows a magic trick. He slams a pencil into the table and claims that he can make it “disappear”. He shoves a guy’s head onto the pencil, which results in the pencil penetrating into his forehead.

2] The Joker promises, that if Coleman Reese is not dead in 60 minutes, he would blow up a hospital. So panic wakes in the minds of the people, as no one knows which us the unlucky hospital. Evacuation begins, and many of the people try to kill the Mayor themselves.

3] The citizens of the city flee in large ships, to avoid the Joker’s madness. One ship houses civilians and the other houses criminals. The Joker plants a bomb in each ship and gives the detonator for each bomb in to the other ship. Tells ‘em that they get to blow up the other ship. They have time until midnight. If none of them gives in, The Joker blows up both the ships. Every passing moment is fearful, and people realize that they are only alive because the other ship did not blow them off. Emotions lead to confusion.

Rating: 9.4/10 (Very Good)

P.S: Linda, Thanks a ton!!!!

Tips and Tricks for Nokia Phones Running Symbian

Get over the iPhone now. The Symbian OS is probably the best ever OS released for any mobile phone. No wonder Nokia is the leader in the Mobile Phone market in the world – most of their phones run Symbian in it. However, there are some tricks and tips to get the most out of your Nokia phone.

1) Know Your Firmware Version

Dial *#0000# to know your firmware version. Knowing the firmware version of your phone helps you to update the firmware regularly, which means less crashes and better performance. Nokia periodically releases firmware updates, which you can download via their website. This also gives details about the date the phone was manufactured.

2) Know Your IMEI

The IMEI is like a personal identification number of the phone, which can be used to determine the manufacturing location. Many times, the IMEI is also used in keygens for generating keys for various useful apps

3) Pump Up Your Battery

Go to Settings and keep the screen brightness minimum, make the screen-saver and backlight time the least, and also switch your Bluetooth off. If you have the latest Nseries phone like the N96, turn WLAN scanning off.

Avoid switching your phone on and off repeatedly. Doing this will eat up battery. Also avoid frequent charging. Batteries have limited charge cycles. Each charge cycle is basically an input and removal of AC current (from your charger). So let the phone battery run down completely and then charge; disconnect only when you see the battery full signal.

4) Preserve Memory

You might be low on memory quite a number of times. Try reducing the image quality. In Camera, click options and settings. Reduce the image quality. You shouldn’t do this if you have a 2 Megapixel camera or lesser. Pics at 0.8 Megapixel become unclear. Do this if you have a 3.2 or 5 Megapixel camera.

Installing apps over Bluetooth saves a great deal of memory.

Clearing the Web Browser cache removes junk stuff from the phone.

5) Bluejacking

Bluejacking is a hacking over Bluetooth. Here’s a method to fool a nearby person. Make a contact by the name “You have been bluejacked” without any number. Save it, send it by Bluetooth and the recipient will be clueless about where the message came from.

6) Shortcuts

Call key opens Log.

Holding Menu key opens Task Manager, where you can kill unnecessary/unresponsive tasks by pressing  <C>.

Holding 0 opens the in-built web browser.

In phones running Symbian 3rd Edition (like Nokia N73), holding the music key open radio.

7) The Pencil Key

Most of you are unaware about it’s miraculous use. Hold the pencil key and move right with the D-Pad or joystick and you select text. Pressing it lets you cut, copy or paste it!

Holding the pencil key and booting the phone leads to faster start-ups

Crash and Burn

If your phone crashes, remove the memory card and hold *, Call and # and then switch the phone on. This will restore original factory settings. Now format your memory card using an external memory card reader which plugs into the USB port of your PC.

So that’s it folks! Comment if you liked, or didn’t!

The (Not So) Crippling Crashes of Chrome

I opened a portable version of Chrome in school, on the same friggin’ computer with 128MB RAM and Adobe Photoshop CS3 on which Shikhar worked on. Of course, it crashed. But its crash handling was cute!

The tabs stopped working first.

Tabs stop working

Then, along with the native Windows “Error Report”, this message props up!

The Message

… and then… restore!

Restore lost tabs