When George Bush waged war against Iraq, he found a pack of Ubuntu disks.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
I’ve lost track of the number of times ISPs have lied to us about the download speeds they offer us. Novice users can also get confused about the difference between Mbps, Kbps, MBps and KBps (for the record, Mbps is mega bits per second, and MBps with a capital B is mega bytes per second. Mega bits has a value eight times that of mega bytes per second).
Speedtest.net is a funky place to know your true speed. It calculates ping time(in milliseconds), upload speed and download speed (in Mbps).
Just visit the site, and wait till Speedtest.net automatically detects your nearest server. Click on the yellow pyramid to start the test. The coolest part of the test has to be the speedometer.
Also, something really great is that based on the download speed, you also have an idea about the time it will take to download a particular movie or song. Also, you can copy some direct links (to images) and forum links (for embedding) to boast about your download speeds, especially if you have an internet backbone connection (whoever’s got that, I envy you. Just wait till you see my download speed).
Do you have any idea about the torture I go through everyday?
Let us take two variables a and b
Let a=b
Therefore, a2=ab
Therefore, a2-b2=ab-b2 (Subtracting b2 from both sides)
Therefore, (a+b)(a-b)=b(a-b) (using identiy a2-b2 = (a+b)(a-b)
Therefore, a+b=b (Dividing (a-b) from both sides)
Since a=b, we can substitute a in place of b
Therefore, a+a=a
Therefore, 2a=a
Therefore, 2=1
In out world, two is equal to one.
Hence, proved.
Or, how to print effectively without any hassles in Ubuntu.
Step 1] Boot Ubuntu
Step 2] Make sure your printer is connected (via USB) and switched on
Step 3] Have two glasses of water
Step 4] Watch TV for five minutes
Step 5] Return to your terminal and start printing.
That’s it. No spoolsv problems, nothing. Ubuntu will notify about low-ink and out of paper problems. It also reads .pdfs and .docs, so there is no question of incompatibility anyway.
Yes. That’s true. From Gmail to Yahoo! Mail. NOT the other way round. Many (including me) love Google and its relatively new mail client. But the truth is, Yahoo! is the better one. It has some really nice features, which many Yahoo! skeptics would have ignored. People switched to Gmail as it was new and funky. But all of us know about that (un)popular Gmail server crash. Gmal lost its credibility as a good e-mail client back then. Yahoo! is still better. It has filters, drag-and-drop features, and also loads much faster than Gmail. Even faster, when cached.
I did a test to prove it
1] Google Mail
Typed mail.google.com in the address bar of Firefox, made sure that no bandwidth-consuming processes were running, and hit enter.
Enabled: Chat, Calendar
Disabled: Labs, Themes
Time taken to load: 8.99 seconds
2] Yahoo! Mail
Typed mail.yahoo.com in the address bar of Firefox, made sure no bandwidth-consuming process was running, and hit enter.
Enabled: Every friggin’ thing available by default: news, temperature, chat and calendar.
Disabled: Nothing
Time taken to load: 7.56 seconds
Which proves it that Yahoo! Mail loads faster than Gmail by 1.43 seconds. That’s a large number, considering Gmail had no labs enabled.
So if I have convinced you to move to Yahoo! Mail from Gmail, here’s how to do it:
TrueSwitch
Step 1: We’ll be using this service called TrueSwitch. It does cost $19.95, but free to do, when you switch to Yahoo! (Wow. I was a poet and I didn’t even know it!). Click here to begin switching.
"Copy, Notify, Forward, Cancel" seems to be the motto of TrueSwitch, and it lives up to it.
Step 2: After you’ve done that, you’ll need to sign in to Yahoo! Type your password, and click Sign-in.
Sign-in to your Yahoo! Account
Step 3: After you’ve signed in, you need to grant TrueSwitch permission to access your account. Click I Agree.
Confirmation
Step 4: Enter your old e-mail address (Gmail in this case). Enter your username, and select gmail.com in the first drop-down box. For example, if your e-mail ID is shadowline@gmail.com, you type in only shadowline and select gmail.com in the drop-down box.
Type your old e-mail address password, select all data to be transferred (I recommend you check both Email and Address Book.)
You can also send a notification to all contacts in your old Gmail account informing about the change in your e-mail ID. Clicking on Personalize this notification will help you draft a custom message manually, which will be sent to your contacts.
You will need to give TrueSwitch all details to switch to your Yahoo! account
An example of the notification the recipient receives when your notification reaches him/her.
Step 5: When you’re sure you’ve done everything, including agreeing to the Terms of Service, click Start Transfer. You should see this dialog box.
Although it claims to take a few seconds, it takes suprisingly longer than the expected time to process the data, depending on your current Gmail account.
Step 6: After a really long and agonizing wait, TrueSwitch completes “confirming your account info”. Open your Yahoo! Mail account. If all the mails aren’t there, don’t worry. Wait for about sixteen hours. You’ll see all mails with each sorted out into folders available to you. Nothing changes in the first twelve hours. The final result comes only after sixteen hours, when all your folders and current mails have been transferred.
Step 7: Now that the transfer is complete, you need to direct all your mails to your Yahoo! account. Open Gmail. Click Settings. Click Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Enable forwarding by clicking on the Forward incoming mail to radio button. Type in your complete new email ID. Select archive Gmail’s copy in the drop-down box, so that all mail remains in the Gmail inbox as well.
Forwarding all incoming mail
Step 8: Click Save Changes and open your Yahoo! Mail account. You must have received a mail from accounts-noreply@google.com. Click on the confirmation link, and you’re through.
Congratulations! You have successfully travelled from Gee Mail to Yahoo! Mail. Lemme reassure you. Its a move you’ll never regret.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 India License
Did you know that Windows XP reserves 20% of your bandwidth by default for other applications, meaning that you will not be able to access your browser at maximum speed, because of some other application? It sucks, right? Well now you can change it. As usual, not by any 3rd party application, but by some clever tweaking. Lets edit group policies!
1] Hit WinKey+R to open the Run… dialog box.
2] Type gpedit.msc in the Run… dialog box and hit Enter or click OK. The Group Policy window opens up.
3] Navigate to Local Computer Policy/Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates…
…QoS Packet Scheduler.
4] Now, in the right pane, double-click on Limit reservable bandwidth.
This window should open. This is how it looks like, originally.
6] Click the Enabled radio button. You will see 20% entered in the Bandwidth limit (%) text box. Type 0 instead. Zero. Not O. It should now look like this.
7] Click OK and close all the other windows. Restart Windows. You will surely notice a change in the speed.
It worked for me. Comment if it worked, or didn’t!
The registry can be modified easily to make way for a lot of tweaking. Blocking access to an application is one of those great things. No, as usual, I’m not going to use any third-part app (as they can be dangerous). Lets do some registry hacking by ourselves!!
1] Click Start –> Run… or hit WinKey+R on your keyboard to open the Run… dialog box.
2] Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software …
…/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies …
… /Explorer.
3] Right-click on any empty space in the right pane, and go to New –> DWORD Value.
4] Name the newly created DWORD Value as disallowrun. Press Enter to confirm the renaming.
5] Double-click disallowrun (which you just created) and make sure the Value data is 1 and the Base is Hexadecimal. Click OK when you’re done.
6] Again, right-click on any empty space in the right-pane, and select New –> String Value
7] Name the new String Value anything. I named it notepad, as I want to block the Notepad application. Hit Enter after renaming the file.
8] Double-click the String Value which you just created, and enter the exe name of the file you want to block. It is notepad.exe in this case. To find out the exe name, open Task Manager (by typing taskmgr in Run), and identify the exe name of the application you’re running. Type it into the Value data and click OK.
9] Close the Registry Editor, and restart your computer. You will find that the application is blocked.
Comment if it worked, or didn’t!
When Microsoft released Office 2007, I was overwhelmed at all the things it could do, and it never ceases to impress me. Especially PowerPoint – it’s got those great reflection controls. It’s one of the best office suites for Windows I’ve ever used – except iWork, which is only for Mac OS X. Yes. Better than Symphony and OO.org.
A great feature, this time from Word 2007, is blog publishing. Publishing a blog is just as easy as typing a document along with the ease of putting all those great headlines and super-efficient spell checking. So here are the steps. Follow closely!
1] Open Word 2007. Vista or Windows 7 users can type “word” in the search bar in the Start menu.
2] Click on the Office button on the top left corner.
3] In the menu, click Publish and click Blog.
4] A new document must now open. A dialog box will appear, telling you to register an account. Click Register Now.
5] Choose your blog provider now. A list of the common blog providers is already available; however, you may add another one if your blog provider isn’t listed. I chose WordPress, as your favourite blog Shadow Line is hosted on it.
6] Click Next. A windows will appear asking you to enter your blog information. Do so.
7] This is an example of the information which I’ve entered for my blog. Notice that the URL is http://crystalunicorn.wordpress.com/xmlprc.php, and not http://www.crystalunicorn.wordpress.com/xmlprc.php. Do not forget to exclude the “www” part. It doesn’t work otherwise. Enter the User Name and Password. You do know that, don’t you. Don’t you? Don’t you?!
8] Click Picture Options if you want to change the way pictures are posted on your blog – whether you host them on the blog server, or on another server. Click OK when you’re done.
9] Your Blog Provider will now be contacted to register Word with your blog account.
10] Success! Click OK to start blogging.
Many times, your iPod may hang, depriving you of musical bliss. You may knew how to fix it; but you might forget that manner at home. Heres what you do in such cases.
Presenting the iPod Five Minute Fix. Scroll to the bottom for supported models.
Works only with an iPod having a click wheel. Will not work with your iPod Touch or iPod Shuffle.
1] There should be a Hold button on the top of your iPod. Set it to ON. A fluorescent orange thingy must be visible. This means that the iPod is on hold.
The Hold Button Location On The Top Of Your iPod
The iPod In Hold Mode. Notice the Fluoroscent Orange Thingy.
2] Now, return the Hold button to its original position. The orange thingy should not be visible now. If it is, start all over again. Try working you iPod now.
3] If it still doesn’t work, try this. Press and hold the Menu and the Center button for five seconds. Take somebody’s help if you wish. Make sure the Hold button is in its original position.
Click Wheel
4] The Apple logo must now be visible on the screen, which usually occurs against a black background. The iPod should now be reset to the settings in which is last functioned perfectly.
Apple Logo
I like to open apps in a flash.
I hate to see my desktop cluttered with icons.
I love to type commands using my keyboard rather than using that mouse to double-click on that icon.
I hate to waste time for navigating to the location of my stored application.
If you feel that the above conditions apply fully to you, then this is the right post. If not, it still is.
Like I was saying, World of Goo is an awesome game. Obviously, I didn’t buy a full version. I downloaded a portable version. But I had to navigate to the folder always to get that game running. So I got an easier way:
1] Navigate to the file you want to open using the Run dialog box. It’s World of Goo in my case.
2] Right-click on the application icon, and click Create Shortcut.
3] You’ll see that the shortcut is created. It’s Shortcut to World of Goo in my case. Hit F2 on your keyboard (which is the shortcut to rename a file) and type a short, sweet name, that you’ll remember. I used goo. World of Goo is all about goo balls. So I possibly can’t forget about them.
4] Now to relocate the file. Hit Ctrl+X (which is the shortcut for moving a file), and open the Run… dialog box in the Start menu. Type %windir% and hit Enter. This opens your default Windows installation directory.
5] Hit Ctrl+V, and paste the shortcut in that directory. That’s it! You’re done!
6] Now, whenever I want to play, tap WinKey+R and type goo and press enter!
Hope you liked this post. Comment if it worked, or didn’t! I’ll solve your queries.
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