Bharath's Tech Blog

Using mChek with Airtel prepaid and postpaid

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:54:00 +0000

Airtel offers mchek service which can be used to pay mobile phone bills for postpaid customers and to make recharges for prepaid customers.
The service can be accessed through interactive voice response system by dialing 543219.
mChek asks for a credit card number and a pin number while signing up.The pin number serves as the authentication code for accessing and using the mChek facility.
Recharges can be done for a mimimum of 50rs, the amount credited will be the usual for prepaid subscribers. The best part is that mChek not only works for the regsitering number,it can also be used to recharge/pay bills for any airtel numbers,be it prepaid mobile or postpaid mobile or landline.

Special note: In case an user is registered with mChek,but not having outgoing facility due to low balance or unpaid postpaid bill, mChek cannot be accessed directly since 543219 cannot be dialled.There is a solution to access mChek even in such situations, goto airtel.in and go into "Easy Pay".In that page,select bill processing through mChek and give the amount and number.mChek will automatically ask for your pin number in your mobile through interactive reply mechanism.Just enter the pin and the bill will be paid.

Best ebook reader for ipod touch

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:05:00 +0000

After testing several pdf readers with ipod touch, the best pdf reader is found to be "good reader" by goodiware.
Goodreader has several innovative features for ebook viewing.It supports zooming and panning, and panning can be locked within up-down directions alone.There are also two modes for reading documents,one for low light and one for bright light conditions. It can also be rotated.Rotate is not controlled by the accelerometer,its a necessary feature because accidental turning may cause the document to turn.
The features of this product is endless.

The greatest feature is that it has a simple desktop application (GoodReaderUSB.exe) that can be used to drag/drop files directly to the ipod touch.

External USB hard disk not detected

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:44:00 +0000

Many external hard disks fail to get detected on some systems, whether they run Windows xp, windows vista or even linux.
The reason for this problem is the USB ports. Many USB ports are not directly connected to the motherboard, they use some internal hubs to connect to the cabinet of the PC.
The solution to this problem is to connect the external hard disk to a different USB port,preferably USB ports in the back of the CPU.
The drives fail to detect because they are not getting enough power from certain USB ports, connecting the external hard disk to the rear end of the CPU will solve the problem.
The fix mentioned was tested several times, and it works with all external hard disks.

OpenID: Login anywhere with a single id

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:46:00 +0000

OpenID Basics

Most websites require a user to login before they can start using their website. So,users are forced to signup at every single website they intend to use.The signup process is usually a time consuming process since email verification is mostly necessary in order to verify the validity of the user.

Yahoo's id can be used across its network (email,groups,answers etc),and Google's id can be used on its network (gmail,gtalk,blogger etc) and Microsoft has Passport (mail,Spaces,and all MS services including Windows itself).

But what about the other majority of internet not owned by Y!,Google or MS? Its where OpenID comes to the rescue.

Started in 2005, OpenID eliminates the need for multiple usernames across different websites.Its designed by the OpenId foundation which provides it as a open source implementation. OpenID can be signed up using one of the OpenID providers. Once signed up,it can be used across the network of websites that support OpenID.OpenID foundation claims that OpenID is supported by more than 50,000 websites.

Some major websites include blogger,wordpress,livejournal,scribd,digg,dailymotion,facebook etc.,and more and more websites are starting to support OpenID gradually.

Advantages

OpenID offers users ease of use and there is no need to sign up in websites supporting OpenID.

For website owners,the advantage is that more users will be signed up for their website since users dont need to signup separately, and users only need to sign in into OpenID and join the website.

So,users can easily join an OpenId supporting website.Thats a plus for both users as well as website owners.

Moreover, OpenID can be easily implemented by website owners.

And regarding security,the OpenId password will not be submitted to the website, it will be submitted only to the OpenID provider who acts as the middleman in the sign-in process.

Yahoo supports OpenID

Yahoo started to support OpenID in 2008 as a OpenID provider.The implication is that existing Y! ids can be used as OpenID logins (username/password).However, it needs to be enabled separately.

Just go to openid.yahoo.com and login with Y! username/password and enable OpenID.

After that, Y! id can be used to login into any OpenId website.

An important thing to be noted is that the Y! username/password should not be entered directly into any website's login boxes.Enter yahoo.com in the OpenID field.The browser will redirect to Y! authentication servers.Y! username/password should only be entered in Yahoo's login page.

Of course,the user has the option to sign up with any OpenID provider.

Even Google and Microsoft are OpenID providers.

Note:

OpenID providers: websites that allow to create OpenIDs (trivially, Y!,G and MS allow creation,but they can't be used for login in their own networks,but usable on all websites implemeting OpenID)

OpenID websites: websites that allow OpenID to be used as a login method (websites that allow users to login)

Estimated worldwide internet users

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 21:07:00 +0000

Infographic from newscientist.com

Yahoo groups ad container is obscuring mail content

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 22:03:00 +0000

Ever since Yahoo groups adopted the box type advertisements on top of email, users are irritated by the advertisements that hover over the email content rather than flowing with the content.
Yahoo groups adds these advertisements to all emails processed by the groups' system.
So, the email that comes via yahoo groups end up obscured,that is,partly hidden behind yahoo's own advertisements.
Every service need advertisement revenue,but ads should not be over the content.
Ads should not mask the content.The

elements are having absolute positioning values and they hover over the content.
This is predatory advertising.

Notice the green arrow,it points the advertisement.
This screenshot taken at 1600x900 resolution with latest Firefox.

This screenshot taken at 1024x768 with latest IE 8

This screenshot taken at 1024x768 with latest Firefox.

In all the screenshots, the ad masks the content of the email.
It masks images as well as text.
Atleast, this box should have a close or hide button.
Else,it should be positioned relative to the content.

I have contacted Y! groups, lets see if they correct this.
Y! ads spoilt the first ever earth rise photo by placing their ad over the image in my mail,
:-(

Update:
Y! has responded to my complaint, here is the response from yahoo.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Bharath,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Groups.

I understand that the box in the upper right-hand corner of messages
from your group is covering text within the message. I apologize for
any inconvenience.

The details you have reported have been passed along to the proper
support group for further testing.

In the meantime, if you switch from "fully featured" emails to
"traditional" the box will not show up when you are viewing messages.
There are 2 ways to change this setting:

Option 1:

- Go to any page in the group

- Click "Edit Membership" towards the top of the page

- In "Step 3" select "Traditional" and click "Save"

Option 2:

- Send an email to groupname-traditional@yahoogroups.com (Replace
"groupname" with the full name of your group).

- You will receive a confirmation email, reply to the confirmation email
and your settings will be changed.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know. We're
always more than happy to help and we appreciate all feedback that helps
us identify ways to constantly maintain and improve our services.

Be sure to check the Official Yahoo! Groups Blog for more information
and the latest updates about Yahoo! Groups.

http://www.ygroupsblog.com/blog/

Regards,

Naddy

Yahoo! Groups Customer Care

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Comparison between "Fully featured"(left) and "Traditional"(right) mail delivery.

The above mentioned fix suggested by Yahoo groups works.
Change mail delivery to traditional.

Override right click protection and save images in websites

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:34:00 +0000

Some websites disable right click and drag/drop on certain images to prevent users from saving them.
Its very inconvenient for those who want to save a local copy of some images/photos.

In Firefox this can be done by ,
1. Tools -> Page Info
2.Select the Media Tab, all images on the page will be listed with adress at top and preview at bottom.
3.Press the "Save as" button above the preview pane and save the image.
Interestingly, a similar process can be also done using IE 8, Internet explorer 8 has some interesting developer tools.

In IE 8,
1.Press F12 or select T00ls-> Developer Tools
2.On the developer tools window, select the menu Images ->View Image report
3.A report of all the images and their attributes along with preview open in a new tab in IE.
4.Right click and save the image required.

RapidShare Fined $33 million

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:54:00 +0000

Court rules site, and others like it, are responsible for ensuring copyrighted material isn’t illegally hosted on their servers.

The Hamburg Regional Court of Germany has ruled against German-owned file hosting website RapidShare this past Tuesday. It found the site guilty of violation of German copyright law and set damages at about €24 million ($33.4 million).

In what could prove a key precedent, the court found Rapidshare, and by extension similar file-sharing sites, bear principle responsibility for ensuring copyright-protected material is not illegally posted on their servers.

The ruling was a major victory for German royalty collection agency GEMA, which had brought the suit against Rapidshare for allowing some 5,000 protected music titles to be posted on their site.

“The judgment states that the hosting service itself is now responsible for making sure that none of the music tracks concerned are distributed via its platform in the future,” said GEMA in a press release. “This means that the copyright holder is no longer required to perform the ongoing and complex checks.”

RapidShare’s been under assault by copyright holders for a while now, it’s most recent attacker being German book publishers who wanted the site placed on the ISP’s blacklist of blocked sites.

Apple's ipod 3.0 firmware unlocks bluetooth for 9.95USD

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:42:00 +0000

Apple released the iphone/ipod firmware 3.0 version recently.
The catch for ipod touch users is that this firmware upgrade is that it activates(unlocks) the bluetooth chip in ipod touch.Ever since it was released,there was no bluetooth option in ipod touch,but it had an option to connect with Nike gadgets.
The chip that was used for Nike is now being unlocked to provide bluetooth access to ipod touch,enabling multiplayer games,wireless headphones etc.
But, there is a catch here too, the firmware upgrade is not available for free.
It needs to be purchased for 9.95$ (USD). (file size 257.8MB)
Normally, it is the duty of the vendor to provide firmware updates for free.
Imagine Nokia selling its phone's firmware updates,or Microsoft selling service packs!
Apple has monopoly in this segment since they are the leaders.

And then, there is this problem of Apple bundling stuff.
Quick time is bundled with itunes.Why cant Apple integrate quicktimes' codecs into itunes itself?
I have itunes 8.1 and its been bugging me to upgrade to itunes 8.2,but i declined the upgrade. So, what Apple did was to bundle the ipod touch 3.0 firmware with itunes 8.2!I need to upgrade to itunes 8.2 in order to upgrade to 3.0 firmware which i bought for 10USD.

All in all, the bluetooth unlocking is too good to resist.
The upgrades in 3.0 include,

Stereo Bluetooth

Multiplayer peer-2-peer gaming

Landscape mode typing in Safari,Notes etc

Cut/Copy/Paste

Mobile number portability by September 2009

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 20:20:00 +0000

- MNP (Mobile Number Portability) will allow a mobile customer to change his/her service provider for any reason, while keeping the old number intact, all for a small fee.

- IT minister A.Raja had said that MNP will begin in October. (on June 2009)

- Mobile number portability (MNP) is set to roll out in Chennai from September, the focus will now shift from pricing to quality of service.

- In most of the countries where MNP is prevalent, the subscribers are not charged for availing the service.

- TRAI had earlier recommended a charge of Rs.200 for the number changing procedure,since higher prices may make the service unattractive.

- Number portability will be able to keep a check on the quality of service offered by mobile service companies and is also likely to provide a level playing field for all mobile companies, including new entrants.

Related news
- Tamil Nadu has a very high penetration market for mobile companies in the country. Already, Chennai has the highest teledensity at 111% (111 mobile phone connections per 100 persons)

- Tata Docomo, a joint venture between CDMA major Tata Indicom and NTT Docomo of Japan, will launch its GSM services in Tamilnadu by June-end.

- Idea Cellular, an Aditya Birla company with services in 17 of the 28 circles, is all set for a commercial launch in Chennai.

- Sistema Shyam Teleservices Limited (SSTL), a joint venture between Sistema of Russia and Shyam Group of India, which rolled out its telecom brand MTS' in Tamil Nadu recently, has clocked 55,000 subscribers within a month.

- Reliance Communications, which rolled out its GSM services in Tamil Nadu in April with a soft launch, will soon start full-fledged services across the state.

- The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is considering to introduce portability for the Direct-to-Home (DTH) segment.So, one DTH set can be used with DishTV/SunDTH/Airtel's when DTH portability is implemented.The procedure is in initial stages,may take years to implement. (TRAI was recommending Number portability for mobile phones since 2003!)

Early 1990s news broadcast about "Internet"

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:54:00 +0000

How to force restart or shut down ipod touch

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Sat, 09 May 2009 19:50:00 +0000

There are certain instances in which the ipod touch needs to be restared manually, such as in the case of application crash, or irresponsive ipod.

To restart the ipod touch, press and hold both the power button at top and the home screen button at bottom middle.Press and hold for few seconds, ipod will restart.

Travian troubles

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:51:00 +0000

From travian website,

Travian is a browser game featuring a world with thousands of other real players. One begins the game acting as a chief of a tiny village.

The problem with travian is that it requires the players to put in their maximum possible amount of time.Thats unrealistic expectation because players have their real life to tend to.
played on two travian worlds each lasting ten days.
On the first world, i played as a newbie and then switched to a different world with a good experience to play. But, being a browser game,and without much interactivity the game demands too much time.After 2 weeks,alliances started building up and i joined in one of them.I met players who played 16 to 20 hrs per day,and they are the successful players. Any players who spared a few hours a day will be farmed like hell, thanks to their system of timed construction where one just gets to watch a timer tick to zero.

Resources keep accumulating and unless you spend your resources wisely in every 6 hrs(max),your resources will be stolen.How can anyone spend their time to check in on travian so many times a day? Most people done even check email, or reddit or digg so many times a day.

And, its unlike WOW,where one can engage in something interesting all the time, watching the timer is a gruesome part of travian.

My advice to any would-be travian players, please keep away from travian unless you want to waste your precious time watching stupid timers all the time (atleast play Warcraft 3 or WOW!).
The fact that one spends a lot of advertisement money does not mean they have a great product in their inventory.

A glimpse of future computing

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:13:00 +0000

An inspiring video by Microsoft.
&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Video: Future Vision Montage&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Simple screenshot application

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:17:00 +0000

This app takes the screenshot of the current window and saves it to a file.
File location and file name prefix can be changed,date and time stamp will be attached to the file name automatically. The screenshot taken can be opened by clicking on the "view" button.
And, there is no need to worry that your screenshot can get overwritten,since i attached a very unique date,time and millisecond stamp to the file name.

The application is available for download here.
VB.net developers looking to modify it can get the source code here.

Note:
Dont try to take screenshot of empty desktop,will work fine for taking screenshots of any window, i didnt care to fix that bug since there cant be no productive use for taking screenshot of empty desktop.If anyone wants to fix it view above source code.

Apple ipod touch 8GB extensive review

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 19:55:00 +0000

Bought my Ipod touch (8GB)for 12,000 INR on 23rd Dec 2008 at TNagar,Chennai.
Its features include 3.5inch touchscreen(multi-touch),533MHZ ARM processor,WIFI...

I was a bit disappointed at the time of purchase due to the fact that the ipod wont even start up until its connected to a PC with iTunes.Sadly, iTunes isnt provided in a CD.It simply said "Connect to iTunes" till i connected it via datacable to a PC with iTunes.
Thats where the disappointment ends.

As soon as it starts up,its a very feature-filled device.
The menus and navigation are excellent.
This is the starting screen(Home screen).

One row at the bottom is dedicated to Music,Videos,Photos and iTunes.
Sadly, entering into iTunes says "This store is not available in your country(India)".

Let me list out the apps available by default.
1.Safari
2.Mail
3.Contacts
4.Clock
4.YouTube
5.Calendar
6.Stocks
7.Maps
8.Weather
9.Calculator
10.Notes
Then there is the settings icon and App store icon.
Safari browser works great,zooming in and out are done with simple gestures using two fingers.
There is support for opening multiple webpages,and the browser changes to landscape mode upon rotating it sidewise.
Youtube application provides Youtube integration and is ised to browse and view YouTube videos directly without opening the browser.

One more drawback is that it is not possible to download from the AppStore without providing a credit card.
Actually, there are loads of free apps on the AppStore and you may never need to spend a single rupee to get those free apps,but, you still need a credit card to create a iTunes account.The iTunes account is required to download any app from the AppStore.
But, once an account is registered, more than 15,000 applications await at the AppStore.

Most free apps and games are enough to provide entertainment/functionality, but there are some must own apps that can only be bought, albeit at a very small price.

Another headache is iTunes.
It is not possible to acces the device in PC without involving iTunes.
iTunes is responsible for managing music,videos,photos and apps.
And,its not possible to transfer and view ebooks(pdf)/documents(word,ppt,excel etc).
But, such files can be viewed on the browser if the files are opened via internet.
Here is a simple workaround i found.
I bought this "Memory Stick" app from Appstore for 45Rs (0.99$).This app can store any file and the file can be opened in iPod,and documents can be viewed from within the app. There are some free apps to provide this functionality too,but they have certain limitations.

Here are some photos of the ipod.

In standby,

Locked screen,

Safari browser,

Safari in landscape view,

Audio player app,library view of Albums,

Audio player, "Now Playing" screen,

YouTube app,

The "stocks" app,

AppStore, Category view,

Mail app,

Maps app,

Glossy, mirror like bottom-side of iPod Touch,

Sorry about the amateur photos, thats what i could make out of a N73 camera during night.

Update:
A warning note to all ipod users, never set your ipod headphone volume to more than 80% maximum.It leads to loss of hearing gradually.Apple is being sued to indicate this warning on its ipods.Read more about volume limiting here.

History and future of Earth's continent structure

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 07:58:00 +0000

650 Million Years In 1:20 min

The SMS scam

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 09:51:00 +0000

SMS (short message service) is available in every mobile phone, and network operators mostly charge for using sms.There are certain free sms plans, but they offer free sms at a monthly "topup" or "booster pack".

About 2.5 trillion messages will have been sent from cellphones in 2008, and 3.3 trillion messages are expected to be sent in 2009, an estimate by Gartner group.

Lets take a look at what are the costs incurred by the network operators(Airtel,Aircel,Bsnl...) for processing sms. (From NYtimes)

A text message initially travels wirelessly from a handset to the closest base-station tower and is then transferred through wired links to the digital pipes of the telephone network, and then, near its destination, converted back into a wireless signal to traverse the final leg, from tower to handset. In the wired portion of its journey, a file of such infinitesimal size is inconsequential. Srinivasan Keshav, a professor of computer science at the
University of Waterloo, in Ontario, said: “Messages are small. Even though a
trillion seems like a lot to carry, it isn’t.”

Perhaps the costs for the wireless portion at either end are high — spectrum is finite, after all, and carriers pay dearly for the rights to use it. But text messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel,space reserved for operation of the wireless network.
That’s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted.

Cost of sending an SMS is almost nothing, yet the network operators charge upto .50rs or 1re per sms , depending on the plan. Consider it along with the fact that 2.5trillion messages are sent last year, that will make a fortune for the telecom companies.

Further reading,
What Carriers Aren’t Eager to Tell You About Texting (NewYork times)
TRAI not to intervene in SMS tariffs (The Hindu, read last paragraph)
Wired Blog

Creating themes for mobile phones

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Many of us want to create our own themes (skins) for our mobile phones. Themes are better than using wallpaper and screensaver for mobile phones,because themes allow a great extent of customization. There are several software applications available for creating themes separately for Nokia, Sony ericsson, Samsung,LG etc.These creators are usually bulky and require to be installed in the system.
So far, the only free and best theme creator website is ownskin.com
I have been personally using this website for many years and their online theme creator works perfectly for almost every mobile phone on the market.
The only downside is that they require you to create a free account, and that too is required so that you can edit/download your theme later.

Supported models:

Acer N30 N50
Anex TEKSP230
Asus A636 MyPal A600 MyPal A620 MyPal A639 MyPal A716 P505 P525 P535
Audiovox 2032SP 5600 PDA1032C PPC 4100 PPC 5050 PPC 6600 PPC 6601 PPC 6700
Cingular 2125 3125 8125 8525
Dopod 515 557w 586w 818Pro 838Pro C800 D600 D810 M700 P800W
HP Voice Messenger
HTC MTeoR P3600 P3600i P6300 S310 S620 S710 S720 Touch TyTN TyTN II
i-mate Smartflip Smartphone Smartphone2 SP3 SP3i SP5 SP5m SPL
Lenovo P930
LG KS10
Mio 8380
Motorola i930 MPx200 MPx220 Q Q 9h
Nokia1680 classic 2323 classic 2330 classic 2600 classic 2610 2626 2630 2660 2680 slide 2760 2865 2865i 3109 Classic 3110 Classic 3120 classic 3155 3220 3230 3250 3500 Classic 3555 3600 slide 3610 fold 5000 5070 5130 XpressMusic 5140 5140i 5200 5220 XpressMusic 5300 5310 XpressMusic 5320 XpressMusic 5500 5610 XpressMusic 5700 XpressMusic 6020 6021 6030 6060 6070 6080 6085 6086 6101 6102 6110 Navigator 6111 6120 Classic 6121 Classic 6124 classic 6125 6126 6131 6131 NFC 6133 6136 6151 6165 6170 6210 Navigator 6212 classic 6220 classic 6230i 6233 6234 6260 6263 6267 6270 6275 6275i 6280 6282 6288 6290 6300 6300i 6500 Classic 6500 Slide 6555 6600 6600 fold 6600 slide 6620 6630 6670 6680 6681 6682 7070 Prism 7100 Supernova 7210 Supernova 7260 7270 7310 Supernova 7360 7370 7373 7390 7500 Prism 7510 Supernova 7610 7610 Supernova 7900 Prism 8600 Luna 8800 8800 Carbon Arte 8801 E50 E51 E60 E61 E61i E62 E65 E66 E70 E71 N70 N71 N72 N73 N75 N76 N77 N78 N79 N80 N81 N81 8GB N82 N85 N90 N91 N91 8GB N92 N93 N93i N95 N95 8GB N95-3NAM N96 N96-3
O2 Xda Cosmo Xda IQ Xda Phone Xphone Xphone II
Orange MPx200 SPV SPV C500 SPV C550 SPV C600 SPV E100 SPV E200
Palm Treo 750
Panasonic X700
PanTech PN-820
Qtek 7070 8010 8020 8060 8080 8100 8300 8310 8500
Sagem myS-7
Samsung Blackjack i600 SGH-D720 SGH-D730 SGH-i300 SGH-i320 SGH-i400 SGH-i450 SG H-i520 SGH-i550 SGH-i560 SGH-Z600
Sierra Wireless Voq
Sony Ericsson C702 C902 F500 G502 G700 G900 J200 J300 K300 K310 K500 K508 K510 K530 K550 K600 K610 K618 K660 K700 K750 K770 K790 K790 old K800 K800 old K810 K850 M600 P1 P990 R300 R306 S500 S700 S710 T303 T610 T616 T618 T628 T630 T637 T650 V640 W200 W300 W350 W380 W550 W580 W600 W610 W660 W700 W710 W760 W800 W810 W850 W880 W890 W900 W910 W950 W960 W980 Z1010 Z250 Z310 Z320 Z530 Z550 Z555 Z600 Z608 Z610 Z710 Z750 Z770 Z780
T-Mobile Dash SDA SDA (US) SDA Music
PocketPC 240x320
Smartphone 176x220 240x320 320x240

Convert and download Youtube Videos

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:58:00 +0000

There are sites that offer to provide downloadable video links for Youtube videos, but their problem is that Youtube videos are downloaded in FLV format and its not playable by usual media players and require FLV players. Not to mention that FLV format is not playable on DVD players, mobile phones etc.

So, the best option is to convert Youtube videos to our preferred formats before downloading them.
Here are two sites that are tested and found to be working perfectly.

http://www.convertyoutube.com/ (best choice, video quality is best)

http://all2convert.com/index.html
Also check out how to view Youtube videos in higher quality.

Update: www.vixy.net is first on Google.

Disabling UAC prompts in Vista

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:51:00 +0000

Most of the vista users complain about the confirmation prompts like "Windows need your permission to continue" or "Are you sure you want to do that"?. Such prompts are not just to annoy Vista users, they are in place to prevent any system process from performing any malicious activity, like preventing viruses.
Anyway, most users would like to turn off UAC, sacrificing security for ease of use.
This is the procedure to disable or turn off UAC in Vista.

Method 1 :Using control panel
1.Open Control Panel.
2.Under User Account and Family settings click on the "Add or remove user account".
3.Click on one of the user accounts.
4.Under the user account click on the "Go to the main User Account page" link.
5.Under "Make changes to your user account" click on the "Change security settings" link.
6.In the "Turn on User Account Control (UAC) to make your computer more secure" click to unselect the "Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer". Click on the Ok button.
7.You will be prompted to reboot your computer. Do so when ready.
(In order to re-enable UAC just select the above checkbox and reboot.)

Method 2: Using MSCONFIG
1.Launch MSCONFIG by from the Run menu.
2.Click on the Tools tab. Scroll down till you find "Disable UAP" (this should probably change to UAC in next Vista beta builds and in the RTM version). Click on that line.
3.Press the Launch button.
4.A CMD window will open. When the command is done, you can close the window.
5.Close MSCONFIG. You need to reboot the computer for changes to apply.
(You can re-enable UAC by selecting the "Enable UAP" line and then clicking on the Launch button.)

How to download torrents

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:04:00 +0000

Downloading using Torrents:
Step 1: Get the torrent file , this is the file with the .torrent extension and it contains information about where the files are on the torrent network. (for ex, torrentz.com is a worldwide tracker, tamiltorrents.net is a website for tamil stuff)
Step 2: Get a torrent client ( Bitspirit is one nice client)
Step 3: Open the .torrent file using BitSpirit software, it will ask where to save the file, specify the location and the downloading will start.
Note:
Always make sure that a torrent has enough seeders before starting a download (atleast 1).

Technical part:
BitTorrent is a protocol developed by Bran Cohem in April 2001.
In a torrent network, files are not stored on a central server, rather, files are stored with clients and a tracking server holds the information about where the files are on the network and the tracker coordinates the transfer of files between the peers.
Its architecture is as follows,

Data flow -> Actual file to be downloaded.
Index flow -> Flow of index details, ie, where the files are.

Setup your own PHP and MySQL web server in minutes

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:47:00 +0000

Many applications in languages like PHP and frameworks like AJAX require the use of a local webserver to test and debug applications.
IIS can be used in Windows, but, PHP and mySQL needs to be installed separately for IIS.
As an alternative, WampServer can be used.

WAMP = Web server + PHP + mySQL
Wamp can be downloaded from here
WAMP is a one click install web server, just install the software and it will start to run in system tray, click on it and select "Put online".
Your website / web application needs to be placed in "C:\wamp\www" folder, if "C" is your system drive.
Your webserver can be accessed at this location, http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1
Make sure to allow firewall exceptions in order for the server to work.

View Youtube videos in high clarity (HD)

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:41:00 +0000

While viewing Youtube videos on Youtube website, your url looks like this,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJkRilZdL14

Just append &fmt=18 to the url and press enter.
Now the url will become like this,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJkRilZdL14&fmt=18

The video will load in high clarity, will take more time to load, but clarity will be very good.

BTW, the above link goes to pulsar mania video.

Play warcraft 3 online with friends

noreply@blogger.com (bharath) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:11:00 +0000

Warcraft 3 can be played online as if playing on a LAN without getting into battlenet.
Here is the procedure to play warcraft 3 online, without using battlenet.

(Note that this procedure is for warcraft: Frozen throne.It was not tested with warcraft alone, but it should work.)

1.Install Warcraft 3

2.Install Warcraft : Frozen Throne

3.If you do not have version 1.21, download version update patch from here
(version details can be found at the right bottom of game menu )

4.Download and install GG-Game client from here

5. Sign up at GG-Game by clicking here
Make sure that any firewall is disabled (or allow exceptions for client as well as game)

6. Start GG client and use the username/password you used to signup and login.

7.Click on "Settings" button on top right and select "War3 TFT" and enter the path of the warcraft frozen throne game executable and "OK" it.

Screenshot:

8. Select War3 TFT on the "LAN Games" left pane and goto to your desired room (like yahoo chat room), you can play only with the people inside the room, so, if you plan to play with your friends, inform them to come to the room you wish to play (Double click a room to enter into it).
Screenshot:

9. After entering a game, click on "Start Game" and if any message appears, press "OK"(sometimes).Your game will start.

10. In the game menu, goto "Local Area Network", create a game, and everyone in that chat room can join your game, or you can join in their game.

11. Enjoy the game !

In case of any doubts, leave a comment with your email address, or use this form.
If you encounter any problems in this procedure, use the above link to get support.

Comments are welcome.( anyone willing to play w3 with the author can contact here)

More maps can be found at the GG-game forum and this is a must play map.