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HAPPY VISHU to Everybody...

I wish all of you a very Happy Vishu and hope that you will continue your support........

എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കും വിഷു ആശംസകള്‍ - Happy Vishu

For my non Indian friends, Vishu is one of the important festivals of Hindus in india . There is lot of stories related with Vishu .,but especially vishu is a kind of new year .

New Vishu greeting cards Click Here

We have a big announcement that we would like to make today!

Today, we are launching a new Blog , http://songsfm.blogspot.com/

The Best Evergreen Songs Collection. check it http://songsfm.blogspot.com/

If you have been buying software for some time, you know how messy it gets when maintaining a record of all those product license keys - some are printed on software boxes, inside email messages, at the back of CD jewel cases while some developers provide registration details in loose paper that's so easy to misplace.

As your software inventory increases, it becomes all the more important to prepare a proper record of all your software at one place. It need not be an Excel spreadsheet and we'll show you an alternate approach:
Use Belarc Advisor - This free utility creates a detailed profile of all software installed on your computer including their current version numbers and serial numbers that you have entered while installing the software. It could even identify OEM product keys in some cases.

check Use Belarc Advisor

Microsoft will stop selling Windows XP to PC developers and PC sellers next year — 2008. So, if you buy new PC, you will not get Windows XP installed but instead you will get Windows Vista ready in the PC.

Microsoft will stop selling Windows XP to PC makers such as Dell, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard by January 31, a company representative confirmed Thursday. The software maker will stop selling XP to system builders, the smaller custom PC makers, a year later, the representative said.

No more Windows XP as of 2008 [via CNET News]

This means, Microsoft want to wash away all Windows XP and users will have Windows Vista in their home. But for current Windows XP users, to move from Windows XP to Windows Vista will cost them more money. This is because, Vista use high performance and system resources and peoples need to upgrade their system.

But, before you decided to upgrade your system, maybe you might want to check your system Is your system ready for Windows Vista upgrade? If your system is ready to use Widnows Vista, don’t wasting your money on the upgrade.

2 days ago, there is Windows Vista retail download links posted on some forums. That seems pretty normal as there are people kept on uploading whenever Rapidshare removes them. The special thing about this Windows Vista leak is that it is DIRECTLY from Microsoft! It is original and untouched. It's the 32bit-Vista version (Ultimate/Business/Home depending on what serial number you use, of course). Full-Version (not an upgrade).

There are 3 parts to download.
1. boot.wim
2. install.wim
3. X13-49120.exe

If you look at the filenames of the 3 files, it doesn't tells you that it's Windows Vista. My first question is, how did it got leaked out and know that it's Windows Vista? The total file size for this 3 files is 2.52GB.

The domain that hosting the 3 files is msft-dnl.digitalrivercontent.net. I did a whois and this domain belong to a company called Digital River. Digital River is a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions for software and consumer technology. One example is that Norton store is powered by Digital River. After you've purchased any software from Norton and you chose to download the product after paying, Digital River will give you a link to download the FULL version.

Another question in my mind is, why is Windows Vista being hosted on Digital River? We all know Windows Vista don't ship the product digitally. It comes in original DVD.

I am shocked and can't explain. Downloading Windows Vista from the direct leaked link will be a lot faster and easier compared to files on RapidShare. But remember, if these files are hosted on a site chosen by Microsoft as "Content Delivery Network" for its products, it is possible that it logs every IP address that's been downloading from them. I believe when Digital River notices a high traffic on those 3 files, it will be removed.

Edit: OK, I was wrong. You CAN buy Windows Vista online and download it after paying. That answered all my questions above on why is it being hosted on Digital River, and how does people know that those 3 files are Windows Vista.

source: raymond

Having a hard time in choosing which format is best? From now on this will end all because of Samsung, which is about to release a Universal HD player supporting both Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

Samsung’s Duo HD player (BD-UP5000) will fully support both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc formats and their interactive technologies, HDi and BD-Java. With the Duo HD consumers can enjoy additional studio content such as trailers, director’s comments.

The new Duo HD joins Samsung’s next generation DVD line-up which includes Samsung’s second generation Blu-ray player available at retail this month.

"We welcome Samsung's Duo HD player as another solution in the marketplace that will help reduce consumer confusion and buyer hesitancy towards HD media," said Ron Sanders, President of Warner Home Video. "This is an innovative product that can move us closer to mainstream consumer adoption of HD technologies."

Looking to download eBooks and magazines in PDF format ? Stop Googling, just visit Scribd, the new safe haven for eBook pirates.Scribd, where anyone can upload and share documents or presentations, is slowly turning into a huge repository of popular eBook titles and a lot of them are copyright material.O'Reilly programming books, Harry Potter novels, Adobe Photoshop eBooks, Dummies Series, Complete Idiot's Guide series of MacMillan, How-To series of McGraw Hill .. you name a book and chances are high that someone has already uploaded the title to Scribd.

Even the popular "Getting Things Done" by author David Allen is available on Scribd. Anyone can read, search or download these titles in PDF or Microsoft Word format for free without having to register on Scribd.

What's more - Scribd users have created collections of eBooks that makes it all the more easy to find and download pirated books on related topics. There are collection of O'Reilly books, programming titles, Web 2.0, sex eBooks and so on.

Scribd is definitely a very unique and useful concept but for the above reasons, it may not be long before we see these book publishing companies throw their weight around to curb the popularity of Scribd.

check scribd

thanks to labnol

By Default Google displays 10 search results per page. Google 100 is greasemonkey script that will show 100 search results per page instead of default 10.

You can also customize the number of results per page:

1. Visit Google
2. Go to Tools -> Greasemonkey -> User Script Commands
3. Choose “Set Google results per page”
4. Enter a number between 1 and 100

To use this userscript you need to have firefox and greasemonkey firefox extension already installed.

Click here to install the Google 100 userscript.

Rootkits received a publicity boost with Sony’s rootkit infested CDs that was supposed to be some kind of copy protection. Since then rootkits have become an ever growing threat on the Internet in line with Viruses, Trojans, Phishing and Spam. The major problem with rootkits is that most users think that their virus scanner protects them from rootkits as well which is most of the time not the case. Rootkits are much harder to detect by normal means and software that can scan systems for rootkits should be used by inexperienced users to be able to detect at least the most common ones.

AVG Anti Rootkit is a free software that scans a computer for rootkits and removes them if one or more of those have been identified. The anti rootkit application can be used to either quickly scan the computer for possible rootkits and the other to make an in depth scan which takes longer but is more thorough. The in depth scan for Rootkits takes some time depending on the amount of files and size of your hard drives.

check AVG Anti Rootkit

Karaoke and Karaoke software is becoming more and more popular since Sony decided to release the first Singstar Playstation 2 Karaoke game. Even friends who never heard of the Playstation 2 before were fascinated by those Karaoke games and some even bought a Playstation 2 only for those games. In case you did not know, Karaoke means that someone sings the song while only the instruments play in the background. This is tremendous fun especially in conjunction with cold beer.

KaraFun Karaoke Software is a free Karaoke software product for your personal computer. All you need is a microphone, some songs and the fun can begin. The Karaoke software comes with three songs: La Bamba, My Way and When the saints go marchin in. My Way seems to be only a demo song which has advertisement after a while. You can use the Karaoke editor to edit songs from your hard drive and make them Karaoke ready so to speak. This is probably a very time consuming task and you could be tempted to purchase some Karaoke tracks in the store from KaraFun. The tracks offered there are overpriced in my opinion, who wants to pay $2.99 for a single Karaoke track ?

A far better way in my opinion would be to purchase a Karaoke Cd (or more) from Ebay. KaraFun is able to play CDG Karaoke CDs for instance which start at about 99 cents at Ebay.

The software looks nice but is more of a professional Karaoke software than a product like Singstar that concentrates on the gaming aspect instead.

download KaraFun

Multiple sources are confirming that the Chinese/Israeli startup behind the Maxthon Browser has sold a minority stake to Google. The total investment size is rumored to be around $1 million. We are also hearing that this investment is part of a “much larger strategic deal” between the two companies.

Maxthon has had over 80 million downloads of its browser, and over half of its users are in China. Maxthon-originated searches may account for up to 25% of total Baidu traffic, according to one source.

At the very least we expect the strategic deal to involve replacing the default search option in the browser from the Baidu search engine in China and Yahoo in other countries with Google search. The deal may also go beyond search and involve integration with other Google services directly into the browser. Maxthon would then be promoted on Google as a preferred browser.

The deal was apparently done at least two months ago, but the companies have delayed releasing the news. We’ve contacted Netanel Jacobsson at Maxthon about this story, but he has declined to comment. We also have an email into Google PR for comment.

Maxthon has raised less than $6 million prior to this investment. Seed financing came from Morten Lund and WI Harper in March 2005, and CRV invested around $5 million in the company in March 2006.

thanks techcrunch

This How-To will teach you how to use Google to find mp3s. This How-To will be highly pragmatic and will focus on the hows and not the wherefores of the various search strings. This info is taken from a website hosted in Geocities. I really liked the knowledge and information being shared. Since it is hosted on Geocities for free, I'm just afraid that one day this website will be gone and the whole article won't exist for reference anymore! Moreover, free Geocities account only allow 3GB transfer per month. So if the website exceeds 3GB data transfer, the website will be inaccessible.

Note: This info works just great for ebooks as well just change mp3 to pdf, djvu, ps, etc...

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Index
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0) Key
1) Directories
2) Xitami Servers
3) Directory Listing
4) Andromeda Servers (depricated)
5) Zina Artists (depricated)
6) Apache mp3 Servers
7) Individual Songs
8 ) Saving Shoutcasts
9) Social Bookmarking

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 0 - KEY
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This are just some definitions I will use below.

[Directory String] can be any of the following :
1) "index of"
2) "last modified"
3) "parent of"

[file type] can be any of the following :
1) "mp3"
2) "shn"
3) "wma"

[mp3 name] can be any of the following :
1) the name of the album in quotes
2) the name of the artist in quotes
3) be daring and leave it blank and have lots of links
4) be creative!

[limitors]
1) -html -htm -php -asp -txt -pls

(inurl:) is optional and may be omitted and in fact most be omitted if not using a search tool other than google.

(intitle:) can be used in place of (inurl:) and has a similar effect again you must be useing google.

(-filetype:txt) adding this to the end of your search string can filter some false positives.

(-playlist) adding this to the end of your search string can filter some false positives.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 1 - Directories
----------------------------------------------------------------------
These are the most common way that mp3s are stored on the www, you should try these strings first.

String Format :
Type 1 : [Directory String] + (inurl:)[file type] + [mp3 name]
Type 2 : [Directory String] + (intitle:)[file type] + [mp3 name]
Type 3 : [Directory String] + [file type] + [mp3 name] + [limitors]

Example Strings :
- intitle:index.of + mp3 + "grandaddy" -html -htm -php -asp -txt -pls
- "index of" + "mp3" + "radiohead" -html -htm -php
- "index of" + mp3 + "grandaddy"
- "index of" + inurl:mp3 + "beatles" -txt -pls
- "index of" + intitle:mp3 + beatles
- "last modified" + "shn" + "dylan"
- "last modified" + inurl:shn + "bob dylan"
- "parent of" + inurl:wma + "grandaddy"

Suggestions :
- Try (intitle:index.of + "mp3" + "band name" -htm -html -php -asp) first it is usually the most effective.

Another Little Trick:
- If you have been getting alot of results on google but the pages don't seem to be there try adding dates and the "apache" string to your search i.e.

- intitle:index.of + mp3 + "grandaddy" -html -htm -php -asp apache feb-2005
- intitle:index.of + mp3 + "grandaddy" -html -htm -php -asp apache 2005

or if you just want a big list of mp3' doing a search like this every month
- intitle:index.of + mp3 + -html -htm -php -asp apache mar

or if you want to condense the search try
- intitle:index.of + (mp3|ogg) + "grandaddy" -(html|php|asp) +apache mar-2007

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 2 - Xitami Servers
----------------------------------------------------------------------
String Format :
Type 1 : "xitami web server" + (inurl:)[file type] + [mp3 name]
Type 2 : "xitami web server" + (intitle:)[file type] + [mp3 name]

Example Strings :
- "xitami web server" + "mp3" + "radiohead"
- "xitami web server" + intitle:shn + "beatles"
- "xitami web server" + inurl:mp3 + "magnetic fields"

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 3 - Directory Listing
----------------------------------------------------------------------
String Format :
Type 1 : "directory listings" + (inurl:)[file type] + [mp3 name]
Type 2 : "directory listings" + (intitle:)[file type] + [mp3 name]
Type 3 : "directory listings of" + (inurl:)[file type] + [mp3 name]
Type 4 : "directory listings of" + (intitle:)[file type] + [mp3 name]

Example Strings
- "directory listings" + "mp3" + "radiohead"
- "directory listings" + intitle:shn + "beatles"
- "directory listings" + inurl:mp3 + "magnetic fields"
- "directory listings of" + "mp3" + "radiohead"
- "directory listings of" + intitle:shn + "beatles"
- "directory listings of" + inurl:mp3 + "magnetic fields"

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 4 - Andromeda Servers
----------------------------------------------------------------------
String Format :
Type 1 : "scott matthews" + andromeda + [mp3 name]
Type 2 : "scott matthews" + andromeda + [file type] + [mp3 name]
Type 3 : "powered by andromeda" + [mp3 name]
Type 4 : "powered by andromeda" + [file type] + [mp3 name]
Type 5 : inurl:andromeda.php + [mp3 name]
Type 6 : inurl:anromeda.php + [file type] + [mp3 name]
Type 7 : "scott matthews"
Type 8 : "powered by andromeda"
Type 9 : inurl:andromeda.php

Examples :
- "scott matthews" + andromeda + "radiohead"
- "scott matthews" + andromeda + "mp3" + "fitter"
- "powered by andromeda" + "gradaddy"
- "powered by andromeda" + "mp3" + "just like women"
- inurl:andromeda.php + "shn"
- inurl:anromeda.php + "wma" + "dylan"
- "scott matthews"
- "powered by andromeda"
- inurl:andromeda.php

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 5 - Zina Artists
----------------------------------------------------------------------
String Format :
Type 1 : "zina artists"

Examples :
- "zina artists"

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 6 - Apache mp3 Servers
----------------------------------------------------------------------
String Format :
Type 1 : "stream all" + apache + [mp3 name]
Type 2 : "stream all" + apache
Type 3 : "shuffle all" + apache + [mp3 name]
Type 4 : "shuffle all" + apache

Examples :
- "stream all" + apache
- "stream all" "shuffle all" mp3
- "stream all" + apache + radiohead
- "shuffle all" + beatles

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 7 - Individual Songs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Format : [mp3 name].mp3 -playlist -filetype:txt

Examples :
- "ok_computer_live.mp3" -playlist -filetype:txt
- "*ok_computer*.mp3" -playlist -filetype:txt
- kid*a.mp3 -playlist -filetype:txt

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 8 - Shoutcasts
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0) Streamripper is a free shoutcast recorder

1) Find a shoutcast that you would like to save.

2) Download and open the .pls file, to discover the stream url
File1=http://example.site:80/stream/1074

3) Open up a terminal (DOS or xterm)

4) break up the url into its parts (site,port,locations) so here we have
site: example.com
port: 80
location: /stream/1074

5) Uset telnet to Send HTTP GET message and redirect output. The request is

prompt$ telnet site port > output.mp3
GET location HTTP/1.0
PRESS_ENTER_KEY PRESS_ENTER_KEY

so in the example above

prompt$ telnet example.site 80 > output.mp3
GET /stream/1074 HTTP/1.0

----------------------------------------------------------------------
= Section 9 - Social Bookmarking
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Social Bookmarks sites, are site where people can leave links to other interesting sites given a certain "tag." Tags are sort of like search terms and categories combined. Searching anyone of these bookmark sites for the type or music or band you like is almost sure to bring up lots of links to free mp3s. There are two links at the top of this page digg and del.ici.us, I use and there are others. If you do join a site make sure to give me a thanks by adding a link to this site!

It happened to me more than once that I was not able to unpack a zipped archive and recover the files within because the zip file was broken. Reasons for this can be numerous: Read errors, scratches on CDs or a system crash. Object Fix Zip is a zip tool that tries to repair corrupt and partially damaged zip files. It is possible to extract files from zip archives that have CRC errors or have only been partially downloaded. The free software creates a new zip archive while trying to recover the contents of the damaged zip archive

Using Fix Zip is pretty straightforward. You add all the zip archives that you want to check to the queue. After that you can choose which actions should be performed. You may select to test the zip file for data integrity, fix / repair the zip archive and create a new working zip file and extract the contents of the zip to a destination on your hard drive.

The test simply checks if the zip file is not corrupted and writes all information discovered into a log file. The other options should be self explanatory I guess. You should be aware that Fix Zip is not able to recover files that are not there. If you have downloaded a 700 MB movie file in many zip archives and some of those zips are missing you will not be able to recover the whole movie.

check Object Fix Zip

MessenPass is a free password cracking tool that will easily reveal passwords of your AOL, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, MSN or any other instant messenger clients.

Since most messengers (like Google Talk or Yahoo! Messenger) require the same username / password combination to login as the mail account, MessenPass can effectively be used to recover your (or someone else's) Google Account, AOL or Yahoo! Mail password.

And it works like a charm. [I was absolutely shocked to see my GMail password on the screen the moment I ran this 47 kb utility]

MessenPass works only if you have selected the "Remember Password" setting while logging into your messenger program. It detects the Instant Messenger applications installed on your computer, decrypts the passwords they store, and displays all user name/password pairs in a text or Excel file.

This may be a useful but quite dangerous tool as well - it's so small that it can run off your USB drive and requires no installation - imagine while you are on a trip to the pantry for a cup of coffee and anyone can access your login credentials by plugging in the USB drive.

The only workaround is to deselect the "Remember password" while starting your IM client. MessenPass doesn't crack Skype or Hotmail passwords yet.

Download MessenPass [IM Password Recovery Software]

If you are the iPod owner, here got the good news is just for you, turn the Apple iPod player into a fully fledged alarm clock!

Logitec is coming up with the LDS-iALARM, which features an old school alarm clock look, but it’s actually a dock for your Apple iPod, letting you wake up to whatever tunes happen to fill your collection. In addition, this “iPod” alarm is also featuring twin speakers (2×6W) and therefore gives the Apple product yet another use!

After you own this dock, just slot your Apple iPod into the alluring plastic clock face, then set the alarm. And you can now awake not to the sound of bells a-ring-tingling, but to your favorite music track of choice. However, you still need to go through the configuration of the settings on your iPod because there is no LCD display on the LDS-iALARM dock itself. Besides, the LDS-iALARM can perform as a charger stand to charge the iPod as well, making it remarkably useful.

LDS-iAlarm is available in black or white to suit your Apple iPod.

If you didn't know about File Hippo, well, it's a website that lists latest and also old versions of FREEWARE. If for some reason you want to download an older version of the software which is not available to download from the author website anymore, chances are File Hippo will have it. If you're like me, constantly looking for latest version of softwares, File Hippo website is always up to date. Imagine if you have 10 or more softwares installed and you had to visit ALL of the websites everyday just to check for the latest version. Now you check only File Hippo and use the time to do other things.
File Hippo Update Checker
File Hippo also came out with a great tool called Update Checker which you can use to automatically check for latest version of software that is installed on your computer.

This 100kb program scans your computer for installed software, and then contacts a server to determine if your software is up to date. When it's finished, a window pops up in your web browser showing you a list of programs that you could choose to update with the latest version number along with the version you're running. Amazingly, the whole scanning process doesn't take longer than 2 seconds!
Check Latest Software Version

It's can be very useful and also scary. Although File Hippo has privacy policy which states that the Update Checker will not send any personal information back to filehippo.com. The only information collected is a list of programs and their versions, along with the operating system details to help with processing. Additionally none of this is linked to your IP address and the logs are deleted after processing.

Question is, would you risk it? You can easily use a packet sniffer to check what data are being sent out. I don't think File Hippo would be so stupid to risk their reputation by collecting personal informations.

FileHippo Update Checker works on any Windows PC running Vista, XP, 2003, 2000 or 98. It requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed to run Update Checker.

[ Download File Hippo Update Checker ]

• 5min - short ‘HowTo’ video guides for any practical question. Categories include: arts, business, fashion, sports, health, tech, food, etc.
• Free Hide Folder (Windows) - desktop security software for hiding private and sensitive folders.
• Google Send to Phone - useful firefox extension from Google that lets you highlight any text on a webpage (phone nr., address, directions….) and send it as SMS message to any mobile in US
• DailyKeys - daily updated ‘CD keys’ and ‘Serials’. Ooops.
• ebookSpyder - very cool collection of free Tech ebooks (AJAX for Dummies, 101 Photoshop Tips, …)
• GabMail - free, easy-to-use video email service. Send, reply and forward video messages to anyone with an email address.
• gDisk (Mac) - slim, downloadable Mac tool that lets you use your Gmail account as a storage drive
• VidDownloader - web based video downloader (Youtube, Google, Myspace, Break.com…) and converter (divx, Avi). 2-in-1

Cool Articles and Tips:

• Your Guide to Online TV Guides: 10 Services Compared [readwriteweb.com]
• Have a video wallpaper for any version of Windows [vistarewired.com]
• Mac OS X Quicksilver Guides(Tips): For beginners | For advanced users [lifehacker.com]
• 20 Podcasts That Will Teach You Spanish, French, Italian and German [oculture.com]

Gmail Keyboard shortcuts help you save time since you never have to take your hands off the keyboard to use the mouse. You'll need a Standard 101/102-Key or Natural PS/2 Keyboard to use the shortcuts.

To turn these case-sensitive shortcuts on or off, click Settings, and then pick an option next to Keyboard shortcuts.

check this link

Yahoo!7 is about to release version 1.0 of Yahoo! Alpha ^beta - a new service that allows users to create personalized search engine homepage using an intuitive drag-n-drop interface.

Unlike Google Custom Search engine which is closely tied to Google Web Search, Yahoo! Alpha shows search results from various Yahoo! or third-party services on the same page.

The services currently available are Yahoo! Web search, Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube but you can build your own search modules as long as they provide search results are available in the form of RSS feeds.

There's also a special module called "Sponsored Results" that displays text ads based on your search query. This gives a strong hint that Yahoo! may be planning to share ad revenue with users just like Google's CSE.

Yahoo! Alpha is still in beta but looks very promising. You can think of Yahoo! Alpha as a start-page like Netvibes or PageFlakes where every widget is related to search.

Yahoo! Alpha | Example Search Page