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How to Speed up Winamp 5 and Adobe Reader

Darren Rowse at Problogger has come up with his another round of Group Writing Project and I have prepared this post just to enter this competion.
Here is a small tutorial using which speed up Winamp 5.xx loading time, speed and
background bandwidth usage. You might be knowing few of them if your a Tech Geek but I bet you don't know all of them.

Tips for Winamp

1. In Winamp Preferences (CTRL+P), untick the following in the General Preferences
section:-
Show splash screen
Check for new versions of Winamp at startup
Allow Winamp to report anonymous usage statistics
While in your General Preferences, ensure your Internet Connection Settings are correct LAN, DSL, Cable / Modem etc.)

2. Disable mini-visualisation (gives Winamp less to render)

3. Next, go to the Global Hotkeys section. If you don't use these, untick the Enabled
box so Winamp doesn't monitor the relevent code in the background.

4. Under the Skins > Modern Skins section, set the Timer resolution to 35ms. Most users will not need anything faster. Whilst you're in the Modern Skins section, click the Alpha Blending tab and untick the Enable Desktop Alpha Blending button.

5. Speed up playlist creation:- To speed up the process of playlist creation, you need to configure Winamp to hold off on gathering extended metadata (more than length and title) for each file until you actually play the song. Load each file's information individually by clicking Options, then Preferences, then Titles underneath General Preferences. Click Read metadata only when file(s) are played underneath Metadata reading.

Tip to increase Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader takes lot of time to load all its plugins. So, to speed up Adobe Reader
all you need to do is to disable automatic loading of plugings by using a utility
called Adobe Reader SpeedUp. Adobe Reader Speed-Up significantly decreases the amount
of time required for Adobe Reader to start by disabling most of the least used plugins.Also, the plugins can be freely enabled and disabled, if required.

This utility has decreased the time taken by Adobe Reader to load on my PC significantly and now I can view any PDF within 3-4 seconds.

Download Adobe Reader Speed-Up

If anyone has any other ideas, feel free to post them as a comment and I will include them here!

WinRoll: Collapse Your Programs Like Google Talk

One of the coolest features in Google Talk is the ability to click on the title bar of a chat window and to have it collapse. It doesn’t exactly minimize the window but makes it smaller so that you reclaim your desktop space but you can also easily re-open the chat.

There is a program that provides a similar feature for all windows called WinRoll. If collapsible windows aren’t enough for you then maybe you will like a few of the other features like Make a window roll into its title bar, send it to the back or make it stay on top. Minimize, maximize or close all visible windows, including minimizing to the tray area. Make a window translucent on Windows 2000 or above.


So go ahead and try out this great open source utility.

Download WinRoll

Download Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2

Microsoft has just released Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2. If you are running Windows XP SP2 then you are able to download the new version through Windows Update.
Here are the major changes in this version:-

• Fixes have been made for issues that occurred in the first beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.


• More online stores are available in this beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.


• The functionality of Windows Media Connect is now integrated into Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP as the new Media Sharing feature, which lets you enjoy the contents of your Windows Media Player library from anywhere in your home. If you have a home network (wired or wireless), you can use Windows Media Player 11 to stream the contents of your library to networked devices such as Xbox 360 or other digital media receivers.

Windows Media Player 11 is definitely better than all of the previous versions and it is quite good to see that Microsoft is working hard to compete with better media players like iTunes.

Download Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2

OpenOffice.org Premium 2.0.3 Released

OpenOffice.org is a great Microsoft Office alternative but people say that it lacks some things that would really make it great. Maybe a bunch of templates or some clip art would help sway your mind into the world of open source software?

That’s exactly why someone created OpenOffice.org Premium. There is more than 2,800 clip art, a bunch of templates, 90 fonts, and more in the download package. This isn’t created by the official OpenOffice.org team but it is based off of their code.

You can download the English Windows version here .

Find Information and Benchmark Your Hard Drive

Using a freeware utility called HD Tune you can get information about your hard drive and also benchmark it. Using this utility you can do the following:

• Benchmark your hard disk


• Find information about your hard disk


• Find your hard disk’s health status


• Scan for bad sectors in your hard disk.

Benchmarking: You can benchmark the following parameters of your hard disk drive: transfer rate, burst rate, access time and cpu usage.

Finding information about your hard disk drive: The following information about your hard disk drive can be found: supported features, serial number of the hard disk, Model no of hard disk, amount of cache supported, temperature of your hard disk, firmware revision and interface standard.

Download HD Tune

Sony launches Blu-ray Disc Writer in India

After LG, Sony has also launched Blu-ray disc burner in Indian market. The Blu-ray burner for Indian market is known as BWU-100A. To get this drive all you need to spend is INR 44,300. Except for the HUGE price, one of the main drawbacks of this drive is it won’t play commercial Blu-ray movies unless you have a HDCP enabled graphics card in you PC.

Here are the specifications of the BWU-100A:

* Read Speed: 32x (CD) / 8x (DVD) / 2x (BD)
* Write Speed: 24x (CD) / 8x (DVD±R) / 4x (DVD±R DL) / 2x (BD-R)
* Rewrite Speed: 16x (CD) / 6x (DVD-RW) / 8x (DVD+RW) / 5x (DVD-RAM) / 2x (BD-RE)
* Supported Media Types: CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL, BD-R, BD-R DL, BD-RE, BD-RE DL, BD-ROM, BD-ROM DL
* Buffer Size: 8 MB

Sophos Free Rootkit Removal Tool

Sophos, a leading antivirus software provider, is offering a free Rootkit detection and removal tool. The software is capable of scanning your windows registry, running processes and the files in your hard drive for presence of rootkit. Once a rootkit is detected we can remove the suspected rootkit with is utility.
This free software can be downloaded from here .

What is a Rootkit??
A rootkit is a set of software tools intended to conceal running processes, files or system data, thereby helping an intruder to maintain access to a system whilst avoiding detection. Rootkits are known to exist for a variety of operating systems such as Linux, Solaris and versions of Microsoft Windows. Rootkits often modify parts of the operating system or install themselves as drivers or kernel modules.

A rootkit is often used to hide utilities. These are often used to abuse a compromised system, include so-called “backdoors” to help the attacker subsequently access the system more easily. For example, the rootkit may hide an application that spawns a shell when the attacker connects to a particular network port on the system. Kernel rootkits may include similar functionality. A backdoor may also allow processes started by a non-privileged user to execute functions normally reserved for the superuser.

So go ahead and Scan your PC now!

Yahoo Search Index Update

Like Google’s backlink update, Yahoo also updated its search technology today with a Yahoo Search Index Update. The announcement was made on the Yahoo Search Blog, which also includes an invitation to join the Yahoo Site Explorer Forum.

From Yahoo Blog :

As usual, you’ll see some changes in ranking along with what is in the index. We’ve heard webmasters like you love the communication, such as weather reports from us. We are trying to connect with you more directly and enrich our interaction even further through Site Explorer.

Please authenticate your site in Site Explorer and join the conversation on the Site Explorer forum.

Windows Live Essentials To Compete With Google Pack

Microsoft continues to develop the Windows Live services and the newest addition that they are working on is Windows Live Essentials which will compete with the Google Pack.

Much like the Google Pack they will be offering users a simple to use software bundle that will incorporate several different pieces of software. All of the software that Google offers is free with the exception of Norton AntiVirus 2005 in which you will receive a 6-month subscription.

You may probably see trials of Office or maybe they will just include the document viewers for each of the different Office programs. One guaranteed thing would be the Windows Live OneCare software to cover the security portion of the package just like how Google uses Norton.

I am eagerly awaiting the release of Windows Live Essentials.

Eggdisk Offering Free 6GB Storage

Eggdisk may not be a service that you have heard about before but they are offering quite an amazing deal. If you sign-up for a free account before September 1st you will receive 6GB of storage and a 150MB filesize limitinstead of the normal 2GB of storage and 100MB filesize limit. You’ll also receive 30GB bandwidth to transfer your files.

You can upload images without even creating an account but once you register you’ll also be able to upload files with the following extensions:

jpg, jpeg, png, gif, bmp, txt, mp3, wav, mov, wma, wmv, rar, zip, tar.gz, swf, xml, xspf, flv, m3u, asf, 7z, rm, esp, avim, flac, ogg, bsp, res, mdl, spr, wad, tga, doc, ppt, wrl, mp4, aac

Downside: There is no support for uploading either a EXE file or a PDF file which are commonly uploaded by majority of us.

UPDATED: Eggdisk is now offering 6GB STORAGE INSTEAD OF 4 GB.

Get Free Windows Vista DVDs

Microsoft is offering free Vista DVD to people who successfully answer Windows Vista
quiz on Microsoft India website. once you answer all the questions correctly,
Microsoft will dispatch a free copy of Windows Vista Beta 2 CD to your address
anywhere in India.

So take the Microsoft Windows Vista Quizto get your free copy of Windows Vista Beta 2 now.

OK So you want to cheat that quiz? Here are the answers for you:-
1- Vista
2- Clarity
3- November 2006
4- True
5- Aero
6- All
7- All
8- 512

Expand Functionality Of My Computer

If you frequently use the My Computer window, then you should expand the functionality to your liking. You can add Administrative Tools, Printers and Fax
Devices, Scheduled Tasks, Network Connections, Recycle Bin and many other shortcuts
to the window by using this tweak.

Firstly, open the Registry Editor by clicking on the Start button, then click on Run
and type "regedit" and click on OK to start the Registry Editor.

Expand the following in the left pane:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MyComputer\Name
Space.


Create a new KEY and choose one of the values below:

{D20EA4E1-3957-11D2-A40B-0C5020524153} for Administrative Tools
{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D} for Printers and Fax Devices
{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF} for Scheduled Tasks
{7007ACC7-3202-11D1-AAD2-00805FC1270E} for Network Connections
{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E} for Recycle Bin
{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D} for My Network Places

Reboot and the changes will show up the next time you open the My Computer window.
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Download Internet Explorer 7 RC1

Microsoft has just released Internet Explorer 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1). The build number is 7.0.5700.6. You can find the release notes page to be useful because it specifies which toolbars are not compatible with IE7. So, go ahead and try out the latest IE.

Download Internet Explorer 7 RC1 for XP SP2

Google Site Status Wizard: Helpful tool for webmasters

The questions asked by webmasters frequently are:-
Is my blog website included in the Google Web search index ?
If yes, what is the most recent date when Google spiders last crawled my website for indexing?

These queries can easily be answered using some simple Google Search operators as shown below:

info:techack.blogspot.com - Tells you if the site is included in Google Search.

cache:techack.blogspot.com - Tells you the date when Google visited your site for last indexing.

But if you can't remember these search operators use Google Site Status Wizard, which is a part of Google Webmaster Central.

Hope you liked this tutorial!

Convert PDF to HTML - Free Online Conversion

How to instantly convert PDF documents to HTML without installing any third-party software like Adobe Acrobat or PDF2HTML? The answer is pretty simple. Just use G-Mail:-

*Compose a new message in GMail.

*Attach any PDF or Word document that you want to convert to HTML.

*Enter your own email address in the To: box and click send.

*You instantly receive a message in your GMail Inbox folder. Open the message and click the "View as HTML" link next to your attachment.

*The contents of your attachment appear as HTML in a new browser window without having to download the file. close the new browser window to return to Gmail or Save the file to your harddrive.

In addition to PDF, you can also convert all Microsoft Office Document formats (MS Word .doc, Excel .xls, Powerpoint .ppt, Rich Text Format .rtf), OpenOffice.org Document Formats (Writer, Calc, Impress, Presentation) and WML Files (Wireless markup language) to HTML.

Compress your CSS files

If you run a website and you're looking to get the performance out of your web server that you possibly can, one of the best ways to do so is to lighten its load. Tightening up your CSS file can reduce page downloads on your site by up to 30 or 40kb, depending on your CSS file.

So, for this purpose use Icey CSS Compressor.
With an average CSS file compression of 50%, Icey's CSS Compressor blew away all its competitors.

ISPs Turn Informers of warez downloads

The next time you try downloading a pirated copy of Windows XP or Microsoft Works from a warez website, be very careful as your local ISP may alert Microsoft about your illegal activity.

For this action, the software vendor may either sue you or the ISP will jam your internet connection. This latest piracy tracking software for ISPs, still in development stages, is able to recognise the legal and illegal versions of programs being downloaded by individual users and can help ISPs track their subscribers’ downloading activities.

So please never ever download WAREZ.

Google Video Homepage Gets A New Layout

Google is testing a new layout that makes watching a video seem much more like YouTube. The page isn’t covered with a big black area when you are viewing those small movies!

If you want to try it out yourself there are just a few simple steps:-

1. Find a video that you want to watch.
2. After the page has loaded enter
javascript:setCookie(’np’,'old’);window.location.reload();
into the address bar and press Enter.

3.On the right-side of the screen you should see a link to test out the new Google Video page:

So just try the new look of Google Video yourself.

Yahoo! Launches Search Builder

Yahoo has just launched Yahoo Search Builder, a social media powered application where Yahoo members can build their own niche targeted search engine.

With Yahoo! Search Builder you can create a custom Web search engine by selecting a set of sites to search across or you can tune the search algorithm to the topic of your choice. Beyond Web search, Search Builder includes Site search and News search.

Then generate the code you’ll need to add your search engine to your site. You also have control over the look and feel of the search box and search results page.

Visit Yahoo! Search Builder now!

Tags: Yahoo! Search Builde

Quickly Compare Two Text Files

At one time or another I am sure you have come across two text files that you were trying to compare the differences with like two program with thousands of lines of code.

ExamDiff is the file comparison tool best suited for this purpose. The list of features is pretty long and you will find that it is fully customizable. One of the helpful options is the ability to choose what color the changes are highlighted with so that they really stand out.

They also offer ExamDiff Pro which has a few really great features. The most useful thing in the professional version is the ability to directly edit the files within the comparison screen.

However, if you know of any other good (and free) file comparison utilities then do let us know.

Get rid of stray DLLs

If you happen to still have a Windows 98 machine or a Windows 95 machine (who will have it in today's era?), and you have a hard-disk having large amount of DLL files this tiny app might be a good solution for you.

Clean System Directory 1.7 scans your PC for stray DLLs and deletes them. Unfortunately, this older gem is only for Windows 95 or 98 machines. If you have an older machine lying around this is a great utility to add to your collection.

Download Clean System Directory 1.7

AOL/AIM users to get 5GB free storage

America Online (AOL) is will be giving away 5 GB of free storage on the company’s XDrive system from September to anyone with as little as an AOL or AIM screen name. AOL purchased XDrive last August for an undisclosed sum.

The service will include permission based file sharing, scheduled automatic backups from your hard drive to Xdrive, automatic upload of e-mail attachments from AOL Mail or any non-AOL POP3 or IMAP-compatible mail providers and a lot more.

The most important thing - there’s no charge for file transfer. So wait till September for getting all these goodies for free.

AOL

Make a Printed Book of your Blog

Many of Bloggers which have large blogs would find this service upto their needs. Using BlogBinders service you can turn your blog into a bound book.

When BlogBinders was first launched, it only supported their own proprietary
blog format. Now they support MoveableType, TypePad and Blogger blogs.

Pricing is based on the number of pages in your book as well as the type of binding you choose.

So if you want to turn your blog into a printed book just check Blogbinders Pricing Chart here.

Send Free SMS to Any Mobile Phone Worldwide

goFreeSMS is a free text SMS messaging services that lets you send unlimited free SMS messages from your browser or cellphone to any other phone in the world.

All you have to do is to provide the name of your country/city. Then, goFreeSMS shows the list of available mobile operators in your area. Once you find your operator in the list, select it and type your mobile number using the standard international number formatting system.

The same SMS message can be sent to multiple phones with a 120 character limit. So start sending free SMS now!

Send Free SMS

RealNetworks will distribute Google and Mozilla apps

Developers of three popular software applications, RealPlayer, Web browser Firefox, and Google's Toolbar, reached a multi-year agreement to distribute certain applications to users.

From now, when users download RealNetworks' RealPlayer media software, they will be given the option to also install Mozilla's Firefox Web browser and Google's Toolbar. By working together, the three companies will better be able to compete with Microsoft and its media player, browser, and other software.

Google features flag dangerous sites

Google has begun alerting users whenever they click on a search result that may take them to a dangerous Web site.When users attempt to click over to a Web site considered to be potentially dangerous, Google shows users an alert page that informs them of the possible risk and gives them the option to click back to the results page or continue on to the questionable Web site.

The flagged Web sites have been reported as dangerous to The Stop Badware Coalition. Google will progressively replace the generic alert page with pages containing specific reports about the Web sites. The Stop Badware Coalition will provide these individual reports as well.

The Stop Badware Coalition is a nonprofit organization led by Harvard University and the University of Oxford and backed by Google, Lenovo Group, and Sun Microsystems.

In the U.S., people land on malicious Web sites about 285 million times per month by clicking on search results from the five major search engines, according to a recent study conducted by McAfee's SiteAdvisor unit.

Microsoft to release 10 Windows Patches on Tuesday

It looks like this month’s Patch Tuesday is going to be full of fun with 10 patches for Windows and 2 for Office. Here is a brief overview of what to expect from the updates:

* Ten Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Windows. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer and the Enterprise Scan Tool.

*Two Microsoft Security Bulletins affecting Microsoft Office. The highest Maximum Severity rating for these is Critical. These updates will be detectable using the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer. These updates may require a restart.

*Microsoft will release an updated version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and the Download Center.

It is always nice to know ahead of time whether these updates will require you to restart your computer and it looks like these will certainly require restart.

Download Opera 9.01 - The fastest browser on Earth

Opera has updated their new browser with some great bug fixes. Opera 9.01 has a pretty long list of changes and they recommend everyone to update to this release. Here are a few key Bugs fixed-

Newsfeeds can be renamed again.

Right-click to save images no longer puts the file in the list of transfers.

Solved upload problems with Imageshack and similar services.

Solved letter-spacing issue in form fields when using zoom.

Download Opera 9.01 here

Download Opera 9.01 - The fastest browser on Earth

Opera has updated their new browser with some great bug fixes. Opera 9.01 has a pretty long list of changes and they recommend everyone to update to this release. Here are a few key Bugs fixed-

Newsfeeds can be renamed again.

Right-click to save images no longer puts the file in the list of transfers.

Solved upload problems with Imageshack and similar services.

Solved letter-spacing issue in form fields when using zoom.

Download Opera 9.01 here

Chat With Users On Your Web Site Using MeeboMe

Meebo just launched a new service called MeeboMe which lets webmasters put a chat widget on their Website. Users will then be able to see when the publisher is online and chat with them directly.
This only allows one-on-one conversations at this point but could be expanded to group chats in the future.

A unique that about MeeboMe is that the visitor doesn’t have to be the one that initiates the conversation. A publisher can also ping a visitor and start chatting. Surely, it will be weird for the visitor!

Using MeeboMe not only means you save money on bandwidth but they take care of all the development costs. I am sure they will continue to add new features to it that will make it even better. So bloggers go and try your hands on it.

Google Releases Picasa Web Albums Uploaders for Mac

Picasa Web Albums Uploaders for Mac OS X has been released into beta by Google. in case you’re unfamiliar with Picasa, it’s Google’s version of storing, organizing and sharing your photos on the web.

With the download of the Picasa Web Albums Uploaders, you’re given two tools to make uploading photos easier. One tool helps you upload your photos from iPhoto, and the other makes it easy to drag your photos into a standalone application for uploading.

It’s always good to see companies making their services available to both Mac and Windows users. So Mac users download Picasa now!

Ebay selling lady (news and used)

Amit Agarwal did a Google search and found the results hilarious. Ebay was found selling ladies!



Lady - Low Prices, New and Used - Buy It Cheap On eBay

Google seriously needs more Ad Quality Raters to prevent such shocks in future.

AOL Video To Launch New Video Portal

AOL is going to launch new AOL Video portal on August 4th. Here are the things you can expect-

More than 45 new video-on-demand content channels with thousands of hours of video programming from popular entertainment brands, organized and accessible via video search

An interactive programming guide

Free streaming content as well as the ability to purchase and download full-length content that can be viewed on multiple devices and PCs, online or offline

Access to millions of music videos, news clips, movie trailers, full length TV shows, and more. I am anxiously waiting for AOL Video Portal.

Techack is going to be back

After 7 long months, I am planning to bring back this blog from August. I hope it will continue to be a hit as it was before.

Thanks for your support!