bastab – Etiole

Adobe Reader Lite : Blaze Fast Version of Adobe Reader

bastab — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:33:38 +0000

So, for the majority of us, we like to use none other than Adobe Reader for opening our .pdf files for going through the e-books, referring to the foreign University registration form or going through the inter-college band blast FAQs, naming a few. But the common problems for most of us have been the size and slow speed of the application that can be real hazards at times. I have been adviced by friends to use ‘Foxit’ reader in place of Adobe, and I was surprised enough to find that software to be as compatible for opening all sorts of .pdf extensions with equal ease alike Adobe Reader. But somehow I could not compel or rather convince myself to uninstall my Adobe Reader and use the ‘Foxit’ one instead. I had always this feeling that maybe I will not be paying hard for my choice and trust on Adobe, and will not have to regret to neglect the ‘Foxit’. And now, I found out this application called ‘Adobe Reader Lite’, which Adobe has come up with after the introduction of ‘Lite’ versions seemingly being a trend among the Technology giants. After Nero Lite in the application software scenario and Facebook Lite in the social media scenario, Adobe came up with its Adobe Reader Lite. This application primarily is based on Adobe Reader 8, and is said to be its ‘Blaze Fast version’. The resulting fast speed is supposedly due to the removal of the several plugins that made it slow enough. Also these given features have been checked: 1.License agreement pop-ups 2.Autorun and desktop shortcuts 3.Unnecessary plug-ins 4.Removes all auto update features and AcroRd32Info.exe with no errors in the event log These steps can be significant enough to keep the regular users, who use to avoid hussles of loading bigger applications and waiting for it to get activated and flock to ‘Foxit Reader’ instead. Get your copy of Adobe Reader Lite http://www.majorgeeks.com/Adobe_Reader_Lite_d5915.html

Set up Twitter account for your blog : Auto Update Twitter account with latest posts

bastab — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:19:43 +0000

An avid Twitter user and also an active blogger myself, I used to update about my new blogposts to my many followers on Twitter by posting the link of the posts to my timeline occasionally. Now it can be a really tiring job (if you happen to update your blog on a regular basis) to post the links everytime you do another blogpost. So,that day this thought flashed to my mind, that why not I create a Twitter account for my blog also. The basic concept behind this being whenever I update any new blogpost, the account will automatically extract the RSS feeds from the blog and hence post the same in the timeline of the account, so that the other tweeps following can go through them. Thus it will be helpful to none other than me, otherwise which I would have needed to toil the same over and over again. The next step was to execute this thought to reality, which is obviously the tougher part among the two. So, I set myself some priorities to do so:

First, I have to get myself acquainted with the concept of RSS feeds to the extent that if any problem arises in the middle I wouldnot have to ask for help to anyone. Not that I didn’t know anything about RSS feeds from before. But this determination payed me off later,while working on it.

I read about RSS feeds extensively here: http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html 2.The next priority was to find a good enough and deterministic way to embed the RSS feeds of my blogposts into the twitter account extensively. Initially I thought this would be a tough one to do, but turned out it’s the easiest part. More of it coming later. Now priorities being set, plans being done, it’s time to execute. Finding a definite way to embed the RSS feeds to the twitter account, rather choosing it was a tough call, since there are a few ways to do so. Though a coder myself, am still not that acquainted enough with the process of editing the API of the twitter account to get the RSS feeds embedded. So, I had to do something which will help me to aboid these intricacies. A friend helped this time- none other than @monikkinom. He gave me the link to this website: twitterfeed.com And that did the rest of the work for me. What I did was to sit back and enjoy, though I had to get the Twitter account of my blog(@_M_A_D) created by this time and extract out the RSS feeds link from my blog through the Google feedburner I happen to use. [caption id="attachment_2271" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="There's my blog's Twitter account churning the feeds!"][/caption] And thus, I was done. Apart from that, if you've got a Self Hosted Wordpress, then you can download the plugin developed by @monikkinom, which does the work of posting latest posts to your twitter account simple by just installing the plugin and setting up your Twitter Account. The Plugin is available here.

PC Gaming is not Dead, its returning!

bastab — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:31:29 +0000

PC gaming isn’t dead; it’s merely waiting for the day conditions are finally right for its return.And why don’t we keep our fingers crossed? Because PC gaming’s “return” is nigh.

Finally, someone has conducted a semi-official survey of PC gamers’ buying habits.
The result? RPS discovered that, of the 2,000 keyboard warriors interrogated, 93% have digitally purchased at least one PC game in the past 12 months, 71% bought more than four games digitally, and, through some flashy mathematics, that 47% of all PC purchases in 2008 were digital.

Assuming that RPS’ findings are more or less accurate, this means NPD’s figures would nearly need to be doubled before hitting the mark.

Now at this point,none can confer for sure about the probable and possible reasons for PC gaming to be the dying breed or whether it is really going to turn back to glory!Whether it’s the recent trend and craze for the online gaming portals(Like Zapak) or are the Game developers to be blamed for not being able to keep up to the expectations and hypes of the potential gamers across the world and not being able to keep the standard as higher as the online game portals provide,keeping in mind the graphics interfaces and the feel and look of the games.Or is it the reason that the developers are skipping the PC gaming part and are more interested and observant on console?

None can say for sure.

To quote one famous Gaming review portal:

It’s not about graphics. It’s not about movie tie-ins. It’s not about dual pistols. It’s about games that make us think, reason, interact, and use our minds. If we wanted to turn our minds off, we’d be sitting on the couch with a PS2 controller. As with movies, all other considerations are secondary to immersion. If you want to make a truckload of money, just get out of the PC entertainment market and sell to consoles exclusively. If idiotic tripe like Star Wars: Republic Commando and The Guy Game never touched the PC I’d have no beef with you, but by developing for consoles and then porting those horrid, god awful titles to the PC you consistently stifle the development of original IP, and original IP is what has made the PC game market so consistently great over the years. PC gaming is going to die, and soon, if you don’t stop this madness, and I will lay the blame squarely at your feet. The love of the PC and the desire to create original works of entertainment art is what got the PC game market going, but it’s the greedy monopolies like EA and EIDOS, whose only concerns are the almighty dollar and pandering to the lowest common denominator, that are going to tear it apart.

Complete list of Run Commands for Windows (Includes some unusual Commands)

bastab — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:55:57 +0000

Now this list that am going to ‘re-produce'[pun unintended] here is interesting in the sense that it can work wonders with anyone of us using Windows,most of us being doing so.In case you have got stuck to some un-indentifying (well,apparently,to you) problems which you are not being able to undrown from,this is the right thing for you.You just turn your face to these commands that can act as way-givers and savers in your bad computing days!

Well, here it goes.I will be producing a list of the run commands in an alphabetical order to execute the various programs in the windows operating system installed in our computers..

RUN commands for windows:

START >> RUN

Accessibility Controls– access.cpl

Add Hardware Wizard- hdwwiz.cpl

Add/Remove Programs– appwiz.cpl

Administrative Tools– control.exe admintools

Automatic Updates– wuaucpl.cpl

Bluetooth Transfer Wizard– fsquirt

Calculator– calc

Certificate Manager– certmgr.msc

Character Map– charmap

Check Disk Utility– chkdsk

Clipboard Viewer– clipbrd

Command Prompt– cmd

Component Services– dcomcnfg

Computer Management– compmgmt.msc

Date and Time Properties– timedate.cpl

DDE Shares– ddeshare

Device Manager- devmgmt.msc

Direct X Control Panel (if installed)- directx.cpl

Direct X Troubleshooter– dxdiag

Disk Cleanup Utility– cleanmgr

Disk Defragment– dfrg.msc

Disk Management– diskmgmt.msc

Disk Partition Manager– diskpart

Display Properties– control.exe

Desktop display Properties– desk.cpl

Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected)- control.exe color

Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility– drwtsn32

Driver Verifier Utility– verifier

Event Viewer– eventvwr.msc

File Signature Verification Tool– sigverif

Findfast– findfast.cpl

Folders Properties– control.exe folders

Fonts– control.exe fonts

Fonts Folder– fonts

Free Cell Card Game– freecell

Game Controllers– joy.cpl

Group Policy Editor (XP Prof)- gpedit.msc

Hearts Card Game– mshearts

Iexpress Wizard– iexpress

Indexing Service– ciadv.msc

Internet Properties– inetcpl.cpl

Java Control Panel (if installed)- jpicpl32.cpl

Java Control Panel (if installed)- javaws

Keyboard Properties– control.exe keyboard

Local Security Settings– secpol.msc

Local Users and Groups– lusrmgr.msc

Logs You Out Of Windows– logoff

Microsoft Chat– winchat

Minesweeper Game– winmine

Mouse Properties– control.exe mouse

Mouse Properties– main.cpl

Network Connections– control.exe netconnections

Network Connections– ncpa.cpl

Network Setup Wizard– netsetup.cpl

Nview Desktop Manager (if installed)- nvtuicpl.cpl

Object Packager– packager

ODBC Data Source Administrator– odbccp32.cpl

On Screen Keyboard– osk

Opens AC3 Filter (if installed)- ac3filter.cpl

Password Properties- password.cpl

Performance Monitor– perfmon.msc

Performance Monitor- perfmon

Phone and Modem Options– telephon.cpl

Power Configuration– powercfg.cpl

Printers and Faxes– control.exe printers

Printers Folder– printers

Private Character Editor– eudcedit

Quicktime (If Installed)- QuickTime.cpl

Regional Settings– intl.cpl

Registry Editor– regedit

Registry Editor– regedit32

Removable Storage– ntmsmgr.msc

Removable Storage Operator Requests– ntmsoprq.msc

Resultant Set of Policy– rsop.msc

Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof)- rsop.msc

Scanners and Cameras– sticpl.cpl

Scheduled Tasks– control.exe schedtasks

Security Center- wscui.cpl

Services– services.msc

Shared Folders– fsmgmt.msc

Shuts Down Windows– shutdown

Sounds and Audio– mmsys.cpl

Spider Solitare Card Game– spider

SQL Client Configuration– cliconfg

System Configuration Editor– sysedit

System Configuration Utility– msconfig

System File Checker Utility– sfc

System Properties– sysdm.cpl

Task Manager– taskmgr

Telnet Client- telnet

User Account Management– nusrmgr.cpl

Utility Manager– utilman

Windows Firewall– firewall.cpl

Windows Magnifier– magnify

Windows Management Infrastructure– wmimgmt.msc

Windows System Security Tool- syskey

Windows Update Launches– wupdmgr

Windows XP Tour Wizard– tourstart

Wordpad– write

All these commands really have helped me a lot to set up the tiny tit-bits of my machine,and also to set-up previously unexplored agendas..

I would like to have all of you have the same experiences of happy computing,and for that you now know where to hit upon…

So,tech it easy!

Windows 7 : Get some Cool Ringtones for your Cell Phone!

bastab — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 11:40:18 +0000

After the craze with Bing tones few days back, here Windows 7 also have come up with ringtones for you to have the feel of the Operating system while on the go.

For the people who admire Windows 7 OS very much, Long Zheng has produced the OS tones in a format that you can use to play as ring tones on your mobile phone.

The tones are in 2 formats: MP3 for everyone using MP3 compatible phones and m4r for the iPhone users. Some of the tones are really great but that is a personal choice.

Download the Windows 7 Ring Tones here.

Robocop : The next virtual cop!

bastab — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:57:31 +0000

Normally the Japanese are known for tremendous game shows,Tech-savvy gadget and stuffs and drunken karaoke.But now, adding to that extremely distinguished list, is their very own robocop.

The new robocop, codenamed T-34, has recently been unveiled by Tmusk Co. and Alacom Co. for use by police agencies and larger companies that need better nighttime surveillance. It is going to suppliment the cops during the night vigilences,and it can move at 60mph and throw nets at the suspected burglers like spiderman.The T-34 can move at a blazing 6 MPH and will be controlled by a security guard on a remote control or a cell phone interface designed by the firms. Real time images of what the robot sees will be transmitted to the operator, even on their cell phone.

The robot’s means of taking out would-be intruders consists of throwing a net at them to subdue them. The robot’s extremely quiet nature makes it good for sneaking up on crooks.

Currently, no plans exist to bring the T-34 to the U.S.

Android – the next best mobile O/S!

bastab — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 06:36:08 +0000

In October 2003 Android Inc. was the company founded by Andy Rubin,Rich Miner,Nick Sears and Chris White.And that was the start by which they didn’t probably think they could do big things one day,like what are they are upto now.From that very moment onwards Android Inc. have seen many momet of truth,and the most shining of them being approached by Google to get their products sold to them. Now,it does not happen everyday that you are approached by a company of the stature of Google to approach you to buy your products.Google bought Android™ Inc. and the four joined Google.Thus Google entered the wireless world. Based on the Linux kernel and released as an Open Source platform under the Apache Licence,Android these days are attracting huge Industry backing. Although it faces strong hindrances from the already established mobile O/S Symbian and Windows Mobile,the generous backing from Google is surely going toplay a big and significant role in the way Android gets to make itself a steady power in the ever-increasing mobile world.The toughest competition it faces is from Apple iPhone platform which,developers claim,has got both the software and hardware domains equally handful.Additionally,the large pool of independent developers that create interesting applications for the iPhone also work at its advantage. Whereas,Windows Mobile is seemingly low on development sector these days,with no major technological update for over a year.A launch of the Windows 7 Mobile platform can make a huge difference to the scenario,though. But according to the Technical Developers throughout the world,it’s Android which can be touted to be the long-term winner. Symbian(today’s maket leaders) is backed by Nokia only. Whereas for Android the list goes as-Sony Ericsson,Samsung,LG,Acer,ASUS,Motorola,Toshiba and even Huawei,Intel,ARM,Texas Instruments and etc. The main advantage Android enjoys is the lesser security threats,being a Linux based platform.And the better part being any developers can work on it in their own ways to create better applications,and any handset manufacturer manufacturer can use it for use.

Dell to launch smartphone in China this week?

bastab — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 11:11:26 +0000

After Apple iphone and Google’s android,nowits turn for Dell to get their presence felt in the global market of China by going to lauch their smartphone very soon,if not sooner.And from close sources,they are going to get the launching done withing two-three days.
Now,Dell already having a good competition in the laptop market in China(with Lenovo being the chief competitor),this stunt of the company can be well seen as their measure to take the opportunity of the ever increasing mobile phone market throughout the world.

And as companies from Apple (AAPL) and RIM (RIMM) to Acer and HTC eye the Chinese market, Dell will have to manufacture well-designed competitive devices. That might be hard for the company, which has long specialized in hardware, because the strongest smartphone manufacturers combine deep knowledge in both hardware and software.

The device will supposedly be launching on ChinaMobile, the nation’s largest network server,under a new “Ophone” brand. Ophone is the way China Mobile is branding all devices running Android,and it’s expected that devices from Lenovo and HTC in near future will be handled in the same way too.All Ophones will be built with China-only 3G support,TD-SCDMA.

The Dell smartphone is rumored to be called the mini3i and is expected to be running on Andriod O/S.

Keep a check on this section for the latest updates.

ÜberTwitter for Blackberries : Now thats called tweeting!

bastab — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:34:43 +0000

If you happen to use a blackberry and side-by-side is on twitter,and though you get the best of all the exciting stuffs going around the Technological world,you wish you could have got stuffs like the apple iphone users can access. Twitterberry was the best alternative till date,before UberTwitter launched its Blackberry application.The application covers all the Twitter basics in your palm-top.You get to tweet(i.e. post messages),you get to check your replies,your DMs(direct messages),and more than that you can Twitter-search,use Twitpic,and will be able to RT(ReTweet) anything from your timeline. But the best feature being UberTwitter can use GPS tracker of the phone to track the precise location of the user.And this track search one can use for tracking down other tweeps tweeting all around within 10-20 miles of the user. You can download UberTwitter from: http://www.ubertwitter.com/bb/download.php

FaceYourManga – Your virtual alter-ego!

bastab — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:49:30 +0000

Days are gone people would have simply liked to upload their own pictures in the ‘avatar’ of websites during registering,or get compelled to use the retarded artificial avatars pre-loaded there.With the advent of ‘FaceYourManga’ things work in different ways.This website gives you the power to make up your own avatars and even edit on pre-loaded ones,in case you don’t like it(which is the genereal case).

Once you are on the website,click ‘FaceYourManga’ option to create your own avatar,working according to the steps they ask you to follow.You also get to show the previously done stuffs in ‘Your Faces’.

The best thing being you can use them as your avatars in almost all online instant messenger platforms,namely Live Messenger®, Skype®, and many more.

So get going and enjoy your virtual appearance!!