WOW 17

WOW 17 - Lines on Trouble

Good Afternoon Friends,

Today I'm going to share with you a proverb for an afterthought.

A Korean proverb so says - "A fish wouldn't get into trouble if it kept its mouth shut."

I protest to it saying - "Keeping your mouth shut doesn't really help you at all times. At times, you have got to say something. It all depends on what you say."

Danish :)

WOW 16

WOW 16 - Google Voice

Good Afternoon Friends,

Today when I logged on to my GMail in the morning, I was overjoyed to look at an invitation sent from Google for Google Voice. I had applied for an invite sometime during the last week of June 2009. To get an invite for yourself, click here or navigate to https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/.

History:

GrandCentral was taken over by Google and re-launched as Google Voice on 11th of March, 2009 (If it was 12th, it would have been more memorable to me coz I was born on 12th of March.) Google voice came to be popular around 25th of June, 2009 when it went public.

Looking forward:

Though I was happy in getting the invite, I couldn't start using Google Voice yet coz it is available only in US as of now. I shall be covering Google Voice in detail with all its features when it is launched in India. Keeping fingers crossed so that Google retains all the existing features and adds a few other features by the time Google Voice is launched in India.

List of features available as of today: (List taken from the site: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html)

One number for all your calls and SMS

* Call screening - Announce and screen callers
* Listen in - Listen before taking a call
* Block calls - Keep unwanted callers at bay
* SMS - Send, receive, and store SMS
* Place calls - Call US numbers for free
* Taking calls - Answer on any of your phones
* Phone routing - Phones ring based on who calls
* Forwarding phones - Add phones and decide which ring

Voicemail as easy as email, with transcripts

* Voicemail transcripts - Read what your voicemail says
* Listen to voicemail - Check online or from your phone
* Notifications - Receive voicemails via email or SMS
* Personalize greeting - Vary greetings by caller
* Share voicemail - Forward or download voicemails

More cool things you can do with Google Voice

* Conference calling - Join people into a single call
* Call record - Record calls and store them online
* Call switch - Switch phones during a call
* Mobile site - View your inbox from your mobile
* GOOG-411 - Check directory assistance
* Manage groups - Set preferences by group

Danish :)

WOW 15

WOW 15 - Story - The Fox and the Rooster

Good Afternoon Friends,

Today I would be sharing a story with you. Not sure as to how many of you would have read this already.

Story:

Once upon a time, there was a fox living in a forest. One day, it happened to move closer to the nearby village for hunting. Here, he saw a rooster for the very first time in his life. Upon seeing the rooster, the fox got afraid coz it was scared of the red comb on the top of the rooster's head. He thought that is some kind of fire and every time he saw the rooster, he used to run away from it.

One day, the rooster blocked his way and asked; "Dear Mr. Fox, why do you run away on seeing me?" for which the fox replied: "Sorry Mr. Rooster, I am afraid of the fire which glows at the top of your head." The rooster then replied to it saying, "Fear not, Mr. Fox, this is just flesh and not fire, you can touch and feel it if you want." Upon hearing this, the fox pounced on the Rooster and that is the end of the rooster.

Moral:

There are several morals that we could derive from the story. One of my favorite is:

Do not let you enemy know your weakness.

Danish :)

WOW 14

WOW 14 - Dream - Quoted by APJ

Good Afternoon Friends,

Sorry for the delay in today's mail. I still haven't synced up my contacts, so there might be a few of you who would not be receiving this mailer or would be receiving this in a different Email ID. Kindly excuse that for today, I will get that done by tomorrow. Today I'm going to share with you a well known Quote on What dream is. Many of us might be well versed with this Quote. It is by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam.

Dream is not what you see in sleep, dream is the thing which does not let you sleep.

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 10

WOW 10 - An Amazing sentence

Good Afternoon Friends,
Wow, I feel great today. WOW has reached double digits today. I had just revamped my Blogspot and made all the WOW articles follow the same formatting.

A few of the WOW readers have told me that the font size needs to be increased. This was considered when I reved up my blog. I sincerely thank all the WOW readers for their comments, feedback and suggestions. Keep it coming.

Today, I would be sharing with you an English sentence which is really unique. I came across this a few days ago.

"I do not know where family doctors acquired illegibly perplexing handwriting nevertheless, extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality counterbalancing indecipherability, transcendentalizes intercommunications incomprehensibleness".

If you observe carefully, you will notice that each nth word is n letter long. eg., 2nd word has 2 letters, 5th word 5 and so on.. All praise goes to the one who made this up.

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 08

WOW 08 - Wish and Hope

Good Afternoon Friends,

First of all, I'm sorry for the delay. It's another weekend ahead. I have made plans for the weekend; I hope it goes as planned. (or should it be wish).

Earlier, I always had this confusion of whether to use wish or hope. Maybe few of them still will be having that. So, here it goes.

I read a few articles and what I understood is that:

We use wish when we want something to happen. (maybe now, maybe after sometime or maybe never)

We use hope when we are definite that something should happen. (maybe now or later; but it should happen)

Example(s):

I wish I had a Dog. (but I don't have one)

I wish (that) you are here. (but you are not)

I hope to see you again. (maybe later)

I was hoping to see you at the party (but you were not there). [We used it here in a negative sense]

One more thing regarding wish. Wish is chosen for greeting and expression of good will.
Example(s):

We wish you a Merry Christmas.

Wish you all the best.

Hope can also be used. But the grammar is slightly different.

I hope (that) you have a Merry Christmas.

So, now I can say definitely that "... I hope it goes as planned."

Danish :)