Lessons learnt from a laptop burglary

Someone broke into my room and took away my laptop that I was so fond of. After losing lot of work, passwords and of course, money, here are few lessons that I got:

1. Get your laptop insured.

2. Keep your Windows account/ or any account protected with a strong password.

3. Don’t save your passwords on the computer. No “Remember me” please.

Until I get a new computer, no more frequent updates on my blogs. I cant work on my blog during hours which my company pays for.

Calm down your DVD drive

[Windows Only] Do you ever get annoyed by the loud noise that your CD/DVD Drive makes? This is because the optical disc in the drive rotates at a very high speed, not at all necessary unless you are transferring data to or from your optical media. If you are working on a laptop, things get even worse because the optical drive is way too close to you and is attached to the entire body. You do not only have to tolerate the loud whirring noise, but also bear with the vibration.

Nero DriveSpeed is one of the solutions to the problem, which lets you control your DVD or CD drive’s read-speed so that you can keep excessive drive noise at bay. After you load a disc into the drive, you can run DriveSpeed in either Silent or Fast modes. If you are watching a movie or listening to some music, you can select the Silent mode for a quite entertainment. If you need to transfer data and files quickly to your hard drive, choose the Fast mode.

Nero DriveSpeed is a freeware for Windows. It works with Windows XP/ Vista/2000 and ME. After installation, DriveSpeed can prompt you whenever you insert a disk and you can choose whether to run in Fast or Silent mode. Nero DriveSpeed is freeware, Windows only, and less than 750KB in size.

Download Nero DriveSpeed

[Via LifeHacker]

Carry your PC on a thumb drive

Every day new technologies are coming and with every passing minute our dependence on them is growing. Many people prefer carrying their laptops in their backpacks. If one is not willing to carry that load to places, he can easily get a computer to work almost everywhere. But then there is a problem. You may not always get a computer that meets your requirements.

Thanks to the large amount of memory at our disposal in pen drives, we may not need to carry a laptop place for being able to surf, word-process, read mails and store files the way we want to.

Make full use of your USB stick

Your USB stick can double as a portable computer — that too the slimmest of the world. There are a number of executable applications available for various purposes. These executable applications do not require installation and can be run either from disk or from external storage devices like a USB drive. I prefer executable applications for the ease of using them without making your computer cluttered. This allows me to have any number of applications even if I may use it rarely.

Who should one use portable applications on USB sticks?

• Who are always on the move and need to carry their applications and files along with them.
• Who need to work on several computers, maybe at home or offices, or has to keep using many computers at home and office.
• If the user account is a restricted one, allowing only limited control. In such a case one is not able to install any application of choice.

Where to find portable application to be run from USB?

PortableApps is the best place to look for portable applications. The site also gives you a convenient Portablapps Suite for easily accessing applications on your USB. This suite comes in three versions.

Standard Suite: It comes with several applications pre-installed to get started immediately. It includes ClamWin Portable (antivirus), Mozilla Firefox – Portable Edition (web browser), Gaim Portable (instant messaging), OpenOffice.org Portable (office suite), Sudoku Portable (puzzle game), Mozilla Sunbird – Portable Edition (calendar/task manager) and Mozilla Thunderbird – Portable Edition (email client).Lite Version: It includes AbiWord Portable (word processor) instead of OpenOffice.org Portable. This helps save lot of space on your stick. This should be your pick if you do not need Office Suite and a word-processor is enough for you

Base Edition : It includes just the backbone platform where you can install your own portable applications. This is the one if you want a fully customized version. You can download portable applications from PortableApps and install them on it.

You may also just download the appliations and install them in your USB drive without the PortableApps Suite. This wil, however, require you to go to the folder and click the application icon to start it. You can also install other executable versions of applications like Audacity (Audio Editor), BitDefender (Anti Virus) to run from USB.

Plug-and-play desktop

Now a days, all monitors come with plug and play facility that allows you to use your monitor by simply plugging it to your computer. There is a similar thing that will convert your pen drive or any USB drive into your own plug-and-play computer.

Install MojoPac with desired applications on your pen drive. Now whenever you plug this USB to a computer running Windows XP in an administrative account, you immediately get your own desktop on that computer.

Here onwards you can work as if you were on your own PC. Once done, you can unplug the device without leaving any trace on the host computer. MojoPac can be installed on any USB 2.0 compliant storage device.

Assemble a PC under Rs 25,000

This is what I found while browsing, a PC that remains within Rs 25,000. The price does not include a genuine Windows. You know better what to do, or go for Ubuntu or any other Linux or OS.

Since the last time we did this article, the shift to dual-core processors has been near-complete. Single core processors have become virtually extinct, and with prices of powerful dual-core processors dropping below Rs 3,500, you don’t need to consider anything else.

Another trend is that AMD is being replaced by a series of cheaper Intel C2D budget processors offering very good value for money. Keeping all this in mind, we present to you our latest iteration of the Rs 25,000 machine. As usual, wherever prices/specs have remained unchanged, we have simply carried the products forward.

This is the specification of the PC suggested.

Specification Table

Components	Model	Price (Rupees)
Processor	Intel E2140	2,975
Motherboard	Biostar GF7050V-M7	3,350
RAM	Kingston DDR2 800 MHz	2,200
Sound	Onboard 5.1 Realtek ALC662 audio codec	N/A
LAN	Onboard, 10/100/1000	N/A
Graphics	Onboard Nvidia GeForce 7050	N/A
Optical Drive	Lite-On LH-20A1P	1,275
Hard Disk	Seagate 160 GB	2,275
Monitor	Viewsonic VA1930WM	9,450
Keyboard/Mouse	Microsoft Keyboard and Optical Mouse Set	695
Case	Zebronics Bijli i648 (400W PSU)	1,550
Speakers	Creative SBS 370	1,200
	Total	Rs. 24,970

Read the article on Tech2.0

Use DVD Rip to automatically backup any DVD

Do you wish to rip and back up any DVD to your hard drive? You can easily do this with DVD Rip, a freeware Windows application that automates the entire DVD-to-hard-drive backup process. All you need to do is insert your DVD, run DVD Rip, and let it take care of the rest.

Play any music, video or DVD with VLC

Have you ever been disappointed after trying to play a movie DVD on your newly installed PC? Many people, like me, do not know on the first go that neither Windows Media Player nor Realplayer can play DVDs on their own. One needs to buy DVD players like PowerDVD or InterVideo DVD for it. But not all will buy DVD players to view DVDs on their DVD drives. They will instead use VLC Media Player.

Why not use free softwares to make computers more affordable?

A few days ago, a leading business daily of India came out with a news story on its front page — “Cheap laptop price tags can mislead“.

Personal computer (laptop and desktop) prices may have crashed. The low price tags, however, can be misleading — especially for first-time buyers.

Consider this. All low-cost laptops and desktops come pre-loaded with a Linux OS or a DOS version (obsolete on desktops).

The installation of a legal Microsoft operating system (OS) and office suite (for word, excel, etc) will increase the price of the desktop or laptop by 20 to 35 per cent.

What’s wrong with a free Linux OS and office suite like openoffice.org, one may ask? Linux is free but has no support unless one gets it installed from Red Hat or Novell (that charge for support and maintenance, since the OS is free).

According to the reporters, the lower price tags for personal computers that come as proprietary operating system Windows is replaced by Open Source Linux are just a marketing tactic. The buyers would have to actually pay lot more than the quoted price to get a PC that they can actually use. What the reporters are saying exhibits their “bondage” [they are chained to proprietary softwares]. No doubt companies want to keep prices low to increase sales but this does good for others also as one can buy a computer without having to pay for proprietary softwares.

The reporters say that free Linux and Open Office are not good. why? They don’t provide support, they say. How many of you actually believe this? A simple question to these proprietary softwares supporters (Windows fans) — If you face any problem regarding your Windows or MS Office, where do you go for help? Call Microsoft? Or Google?
Their saying that Linux and Open Office does not provide support is a factually wrong statement. Both, and almost all Open Source softwares provide support through comprehensive help option in the softwares, though site and web forums.

Easy guide to installing Windows XP

Windows has this really bad habit of getting slower with time due to various reasons including misuse. [Does it hurt to be called one of the culprit for a damn slow system that is bogged with malwares and spywares?] So if you are among those who need to get a new Windows on your system read on as should those who have a new system to install the much-hated operating system (OS).

What will you need?
1. Windows XP installation CD with product key [We will assume that you have a "genuine" windows XP CD.]
2. All hardware drivers for your machine. This will include audio drivers, modem drivers, network drivers, etc. I would suggest you to get all the necessary drivers by finding it on your system or searching on the Internet.
3. And a minimum of two hours

Practice typing in Hindi, English

With keyboard becoming a predominant way of communication, what if you could type at the speed of thought. Sound too romantic. But you can surely improve your typing speed by practicing.

Keybr.com, mentioned in a previous post, can help you practice typing, but only in English and some other languages. If you want to practice Hindi typing you can download Aasaan Typing Tutor. This is a free software that can be used to learn typing in Hindi as well as English from scratch. The software has interesting typing games along with basic to advanced lessons in typing.

Download typing tutor here (ZIP)

Intel to launch new processor for mobile devices

Global chip maker Intel has said it will roll out a new range of processors that will make accessing Internet faster, playing music, videos a better experience and aloow gaming on the move.

The new processor is targeted at Internet-enabled mobile phones and laptops.

Intel South Asia Managing Director R Sivakumar has said:

We will start the process (of building new processors) in the middle of this year and the products would be rolled out simultaneously. The new processors would be aimed at ultra mobile devices which may include laptops and Internet-enabled mobile phones such as Blackberry.

We can now safely assume that AMD would also come up with some new processors to make computing even better.