Captcha

WOW 55 - Captcha

      Today we shall see what is meant by Captcha. If you have seen an image as shown below, it means that you know what a Captcha is.

      The purpose of Captcha is to avoid spam. In the picture above, the words "inget" is a captcha. The official definition of Captcha: "A CAPTCHA is a program that protects websites against bots by generating and grading tests that humans can pass but current computer programs cannot."

      The term "CAPTCHA" (based upon the word capture) was coined in 2000 by Luis von Ahn, Manuel Blum, Nicholas J. Hopper (all of Carnegie Mellon University), and John Langford (then of IBM). It is a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart." 

      Hope this information helps. To visit CAPTCHA's official site, follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/3pkrd. Here you can learn how to add CAPTCHA to your own site.

Danish :)

IM Bots

WOW 53 - IM Bots

         We all know what an IM is and we use them to communicate with our friends and/or colleagues in everyday life either in the way of Office Communicator or by using GTalk, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, etc. IM is the abbreviation for Instant Messaging.

         We come across Bots(Robots) in most of the aspects of life. These days we have Online Chat Programs where we talk to Bots just like we talk to any other person. At times, we fail to notice that we are in fact chatting with a BOT. The AI (Artificial Intelligence) is so perfected that it will be a little hard to find a BOT from a human.

         The purpose of this article is to make aware of the dozens of IM Bots that are available out there. These bots when talked to gives information like:

a) The latest News,

b) Live Cricket Scores,

c) Calculator,

d) Horoscope,

e) Translation from one language to another and many many more.

         I use a huge number of IM Bots in my GTalk and you can too. Check this site to know more and add the ones you require. Link: http://bit.ly/v7JIB

         Also, you could refer this article on how to create an IM Bot yourself. Link: http://bit.ly/UpO2K

Danish :)

Special Mention and Features

WOW 50 - Special Mention and Features

         Let me first thank all of my readers for their continued support. Thank you. Without you, I couldn't have made it to WOW 50. Do wish me the best.

         As for WOW 50, there is no content as such. However, there are a couple of enhancements that I have done to my blog overnight. A few which you could notice explicitly. They include:

1) A SmarterFox widget which will help you get information on the selected text from a few popular sites. Check Screenshot below. This is applicable only for selected browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome and Higher versions of Internet Explorer. I'm really sorry to say that if you are not able to use this, it means that your browser is not compatible.

2) Earlier, I used to burn my feeds using Atom or RSS. Now, I have shifted my feeds to be available through FeedBurner as I am planning to support my blogs only thru FeedBurner in the future. The new feed address is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/danishthomas. People using Google Reader or any other service to read my feeds, do kindly modify the feed address.
  Note: My Old Feed address will automatically redirect to the new feedburner's address.
3) I have made my feeds available thru Email subscription. Screenshot below. What this means is that whenever I post any content on my blog, you'll automatically be receiving an e-mail. Also, you can also subscribe your friends or ask them to subscribe to my blog without the need to ask me.
  Note: I have manually added all of my existing readers so that you don't have to visit the site to subscribe to my blogs via email. However. you have to click on the activation link that you would have received for activating your email subscription. Thanks to those who have already activated the link.

4) Reblog, a feature offered by the assistance of Zemanta so that you could blog my article/ part of my article in your blog with much easiness.

     These are the three major enhancements that I worked on overnight so that you will be having a comfortable read. Other than this, there are a few additional enhancements which I had worked on.

Thank you all for your continued support.

Best Regards,
Danish :)

P.S.: Though I have made Email subscription available, I will take a day or two to completely activate that feature. Do kindly bear with me if you receive a duplicate mail for the next couple of days.

WOW 28

WOW 28 - GMail ADS

Good Afternoon Friends,
Going back to yesterday's WOW, I have indeed received a lot of questions for my answers. A few of my friends made them were so funny that I literally rolled on the floor laughing. The sad part is I didn't get a satisfactory question fro my answer.

Leaving that behind, lets proceed to today's WOW. Whenever, I type out email or read email in GMail. I have noticed that they add their ads to the right pane. If you still wondering what I am talking about check this out.

At times, the ads can be so disgusting, well right now I'm seeing couple of ads related to post free ads and a Colgate Tooth Paste ad. Wow! That's weird.

Yesterday, I read on the net that this can be prevented. Type out the following two sentence. This will take care of the ads. Maybe you could include them as part of your signature. The golden sentences are:

I enjoy the massacre of ads. This sentence will slaughter ads without a messy bloodbath.

Maybe you could change the font color to white so that this goes unseen. Check this out to see the difference.

Have a great day without any ads.


Danish :)

WOW 21

WOW 21 - Windows Logon Banner

Good Afternoon Friends,

In many of the organizations, they show a banner when we try to login to the system. Ever wondered how to get this one in your personal Machine @ home. Read on to know how. Again this is a Registry Hack.

Steps:

1. Open Registry Editor (Start -> Run -> Regedit)

2. Navigate to the path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system

3. Right click on the Right Pane and create New String values.

4. Rename the first string key as "legalnoticecaption" and add the heading that you wish to see here. (say. !!! Important Notice !!!)

5. Rename the second string key as "legalnoticetext" and add the text that you would wish to see here. (say. Visit: http://danishthomas.blogspot.com/ ;))

6. You are done. Next time you would see this screen before you get to the logon page.

Alternate Method:

1. Open Notepad and key in the following lines of code:

--------------------------------- Starts here --------------------------------- ' Exclude this line

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]

"legalnoticecaption"="!!! Important Notice !!!"

"legalnoticetext"="Visit: http://danishthomas.blogspot.com/ ;)

You can put a new paragraph too."

--------------------------------- Ends here --------------------------------- ' Exclude this line

2. Save this file as say "Banner.reg" (Note the extension .REG)

3. Double click on the file to add the contents to the registry.

This way, you can show off by keying in some stuff (upto ur imagination). Well, the best of us could use this as a first step for an e-proposal. ;)

Danish :)

WOW 20

WOW 20 - Boost Internet Speed - II

Good Afternoon Friends,

Yesterday, I had discussed about one of the way to tweak the Internet Speed by removing the reserved bandwidth (20% for QOS) set by Microsoft Windows. Today, I shall let you one other way of tweaking the Internet Speed.

As per the HTTP 1.1 specification, the default number of connections to any web server is 2. This means at any point of time, we can have a maximum of 2 connections to that particular server.

E.g., Consider, we are connected to a server where we have requested to download 20 packets. Assume that to download each packet, we use one unit of time. Also assume that with one connection, we would be able to download only one packet.

So, as per out existing settings, we would be requiring 10 units of time (Max. of 2 connections) to transfer 20 packets.

Say, for example that we have changed the limit from 2 connections to 10. Then, these packets will require only 2 units of time to get downloaded. Well, that is a lot of difference if we are downloading a lot of information.

Steps to set this up:

1. Open Registry (Start -> Run -> Regedit)

2. Navigate to the path: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings"

Note: If there are two "Internet Settings", choose the first one.

3. Create two new DWORD value(s) by clicking on the right pane and choosing New -> DWORD Value

4. Rename the first one as "MaxConnectionsPerServer", double click on it, choose Decimal and enter a Value (say 10)

5. Rename the second one as "MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server", double click on it, choose Decimal and enter a Value (say 10). This is for Older HTTP 1.0 Servers

6. Close the Registry Editor. A few system will require a reboot for this settings to take effect.

Alternate Method:

1. Open Notepad.

2. Add the following lines in it.

---------------------------- Starts here---------------------------- Don't include this line

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]

"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:0000000a

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:0000000a

---------------------------- Ends here ---------------------------- Don't include this line

3. Save the file as "SetMaxConnections.reg" and close it.

Note: The file extension ".reg" is important.

4. Now, double click on the file to add the information to your registry.

Important Note: Kindly DO NOT set the "MaxConnectionsPerServer" value greater than 24.

Hope this was useful.

Danish :)

WOW 19

WOW 19 - Boost Internet Speed - I

Good Afternoon Friends,

Many of us have a really fast Internet Connection(How fast is the really fast?). We all know our computer could be tweaked. The same applies for our Internet connection too. That can be tweaked jus like our PC. There are two methods using which we can tweak our PC. One is by freeing up the bandwidth (20%) reserved by Windows to improve the Quality of Service (QOS). I will be discussing about this today. The steps you require to do are:

Steps:

1. Start --> Run --> gpedit.msc

2. Expand the Local Computer Policy branch.

3. Expand the Administrative Templates branch.

4. Expand the Network branch.

5. Highlight the "QoS Packet Scheduler" in left window.

6. In right window double click the "limit reservable bandwidth" setting.

7. On setting tab check the ENABLED item.

8. Where it says "Bandwidth limit %" change it to read 0 (ZERO).

9. Close gpedit.msc and lo, you've done.

NOTE: Few systems may require re-booting to take effect.

Doing this will give you an additional 20% of the bandwidth which Windows had reserved earlier for QOS.

Danish :)

WOW 13

WOW 13 - Autoplay and Handlers

Good Afternoon Friends,
Hope all of you liked the last two articles on Virus Prevention. Today as promised, I will be covering Autoplay function in detail.

Though I use a RC version of Windows 7 on my machine, I will be covering this aspect with respect to Windows XP coz many of you would be running Windows XP in your machine.
I will also be recommending a tool (by Microsoft) in this article specially designed for tweaking certain features in Windows XP. This will also let you add an Autoplay Handler. You'll read more about Autoplay Handler below:

As I mentioned in yesterdays article, Autoplay is a very useful function (according to me) which helps us choose which software we would like to use while inserting a CD, DVD or even a thumb drive.
I personally recommend not to turn off Autoplay feature in your system. However, if you still want to turn it off, follow the steps below:

Steps to turn off Autoplay:

1. Open Group Policy Editor. (Start -> Run -> gpedit.msc)
2. Navigate to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System
3. Select Turn off Autoplay in the right pane and here you can choose between All Drives or only for CD/ DVD's.
   
4. Click on Enable and choose the desired feature from above and close the Group Policy Editor.

   
   

Autoplay Handler:

If you chose not to turn off Autoplay, you might be interested to add an Autoplay handler. Say, for example, you are inserting an Audio CD of your favorite Music. Windows detects it is an Audio CD and lets you choose whether you want to play that using Windows Media Player or just browse the CD. Maybe say, Winamp is your Favorite Audio Player and you want to add a Autoplay Handler for Winamp to play Audio Discs. To do that, follow the steps below:

Steps to add an Autoplay Handler: (Using Tweak UI)

1. Download and Install Tweak UI. Direct link from Microsoft Downloads (http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/a/fca6767b-9ed9-45a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe)
2. Open Tweak UI and Navigate to MyComputer -> Autoplay -> Handler.
3. Click on Create and choose CD Audio from the Supported Media. (Screenshot attached)
   
4. Click on Change Program button and open the appropriate program. (say C:\Program Files\Winamp\Winamp.exe)
5. Once you are through with Step-4; you will get the Winamp Icon. Enter relevant information in the other field. Leave the Args field as "%L".
6. Click on Ok; you have now added a handler. Similarly, you can add any no of handlers.
7. So, next time you insert an Audio disc, Windows will show an option to play your Audio Disc with Winamp.

Now, it is up to you to either disable Autoplay or to add a handler. Hope this information was useful.

Danish:)

WOW 12

WOW 12 - Virus Prevention - Part II

Hi Friends,
Yesterday, we covered a topic on how to format a virus affected RM (Removable Media; Thumb drive). In today article, I'll cover on how to prevent a virus from affecting your system.

Just read the last statement, I will be telling on how to prevent a virus from affecting your system. What I meant is, " The virus will still be present in your RM, however it will not be able to attack your system."

Before actually telling what are the required steps, let me tell you how a virus (present in your RM) starts working once the RM is plugged in.

Process:

1. Once the RM is plugged in, Windows (OS) triggers Autorun feature for that drive. (applicable for Optical Media like CD's, DVD's.. alike)
   
2. By Default, Windows opens up a Auto Play screen (where you would be able to select an option) on inserting the RM. (again applicable for Optical Media)
3. #2 happens only if Windows does not find any "autorun.inf" file or autorun.exe (for Optical Media) (autorun.inf is the configuration file which tells windows which file to run when the media is inserted)
4. Normally, viruses come in an executable file (exe, bat, com, etc.) and they call this executable file in the "autorun.inf". At times, we also use "Autorun.exe"
   
5. This is how most of the virus(s) are triggered and once they are up, they attack our system.

There are multiple solutions for preventing a virus from executing. The simplest method would be to turn off Autoplay feature and the other method (our highlight) will be to write something into the autorun file our-self.

Method 1: (Turn off Autoplay)

• I shall cover this in detail in WOW 13.
  

Method 2: (Create Autorun.inf)

• Open Notepad and key in the following lines:
• [autorun]
  open=MyApp.exe
  icon=MyIcon.ico
  label=MyApplication
• The first line in mandatory. Here MyApp.exe, MyIcon.ico are the files that you want to be opened.
• To make this simple (If you don't want any programs to run), just add the first line in the notepad and Save it as "Autorun.inf"
• Now comes the most important part. Once you have the autorun.inf file. Right click it and choose Properties. Check and make the file Read-only.
• To make the file Read-only is most important coz otherwise the virus will just overwrite the file we created.
• Now, even if the virus is present in our RM, as it is not able to call the file through Autorun, it will not execute.

P.S.: Though through all these steps, we can make most of the virus ineffective, it is always advisable to keep an Antivirus software and keep it updated. I update my Antivirus Definitions at least once in a day.

Danish :)

WOW 11

WOW 11 - Virus Prevention - Part I

Good Afternoon Friends,
How many of you had a problem with Virus. Almost everyone; and most of them do occupy a permanent place in our thumb drive (RM - Removable Media). They never move off from there.

They occupy our RM and they don't even let you format your RM. That is how few of the Virus's are!! Today I shall cover the topic of how to format a drive.
"Format!!! Dude, I know that" might be the expression on many of your faces; believe me; when your RM has the deadliest of them; you will not be able to format your drive the regular way. Read on to know the method I use.
When I say Format, I didn't mean right clicking on the RM and click on Format or even running the format command from the cmd prompt. Because, the Virus in your RM will not let you do that.
Follow these steps:
1) Open Disk Management.
a) Start -> Run-> diskmgmt.msc
b) Control Panel -> Admin tools -> Computer Management -> Choose Disk Management
c) Right Click My Computer -> Manage -> Choose Disk Management
2) Locate your Removable Media. It will be having a separate row in the bottom pane; below your Hard Disk and Optical Media.
3) Right click on your Drive and click on "Change Drive letter and Paths"
4) Now, remove the drive letter that is shown there by selecting Remove. Click on Yes when you get a confirmation screen.
5) Once this is done; right click the drive and click on Format. Now you would be able to format it if you couldn't do that before.
6) Now, repeat Step-3 and this time Click on Add to add a drive letter to your machine.

Note:
1) If you feel that your PC still has the Virus, I highly recommend not to do Step-6; particularly if you are going to share that with your friend.
2) If you didn't perform Step-6. The RM will not be shown in the list of Drives under My Computer. To get it back you should do either of the two:
a) Perform Step-6.
b) Restart your Machine. (This assigns a Drive letter Automatically)

Danish:)

WOW 09

WOW 09 - Google Password Recovery Options

Good Afternoon Friends,
Today, I'm going to talk about an option that Google recently added to its services.

Using this service you would be able to "Receive a text message with a password-reset code on your mobile phone." Yeah, that's correct, you read the right "Mobile Phone" is the word. The process is pretty simple. I shall explain that in steps below:

1) Let you browser's address bar show "https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount"
2) Under Personal Settings, Under Security, find the option "Change password Recovery options"

3) Verify your account by confirming your password.
4) Add your Mobile number under SMS and check the option "Use this phone number for password recovery via text message."

Now, next time you forget your password, head to the link: "https://www.google.com/accounts/ForgotPasswd?fpOnly=1". Enter your EMail ID and once it is done you would be receiving a text message from Google with your Account Recovery code.
Wasn't that simple.

Danish:)

WOW 04

WOW 04 - Windows Security window

Good Afternoon Friends,

I came back to Bangalore this morning after having a wonderful weekend over at my home with my parents. Today I will be sharing one of the least used (but I consider it most important) shortcut. To know what, read on.

Most of us would have worked on Virtual Machine (VM/ VPC). We normally do a Remote Desktop (RDC) or use some other Presentation Server Client (say Citrix); How do we get Ctrl+Alt+Del (Windows Security) on our VM? We all know that using Windows Security window, we can do the following:

1) Lock Computer

2) Log Off

3) Shutdown

4) Change Password

5) Task Manager

Change Password is an important option here because if we are logging on to our VM using AD(Active Directory) credentials, we have to logon to our mail remotely (Do let me know if there are other ways) to change our AD password. So, changing our password thru Windows Security window would be the fastest way.

To accomplish this in your remote machine, press Ctrl+Alt+End. (Note: This is accessible only for one level. i.e., If you have a RDC(1) in a RDC(0) you would be receiving Windows Security screen only for RDC(0).)

Danish :)