HOW TO INSERT VIDEO IN POWER POINT PRESENTATION

1.OPEN MICROSOFT POWERPOINT.
2.GOTO INSERT->SELECT MOVIE -> MOVIE FROM FILE AND PRESS ENTER.
3.SELECT THE FILE FROM THE DISK AND CLICK OK.
4.YOU ARE DONE.

how to improve Windows Vista performance

Last week I wrote a post on how disabling search indexing can boost Windows vista performance. In this I will look at various methods which you can use to drastically Windows Vista performance.

Ok. You just bought your brand new laptop which comes pre-installed with Windows Vista. But unfortunately your new laptop performance looks worse than your pretty old laptop! Is there any way to improve it?

Well, as an operating system, Windows Vista is stable and I think it is just a matter of tuning to get it performing. Before I go into the methods, here is a word of advise. Get your machine atleast 1GB of RAM since Vista is really memory hungry!

1. Remove all junk software from your PC - Most of the online stores (Dell for example) bundle a lot of software when they sell a Windows Vista installed laptop/pc. You don’t need many of these software and hence removing them can substantially boost Windows Vista performance. First thing to do when you get your PC/Laptop is to remove everything except the bare minimum you need!

2. Disable Windows Defender - One of the biggest complaints about Windows operating systems was its vulnerability to viruses. To address this issue, microsoft added a lot of stuff into Vista, essentially making it bloated and cumbersome. Windows Defender is one such feature. If you are a power user who knows what can cause virus infection or security problems you don’t need Windows Defender.

To disable windows defender, go to control panel->administrative tools -> services -> windows defender and stop it. Also change the startup type to manual.

3. Disable UAC (User Access Control) - This is one of the most annoying features. Whenever you click on anything which affects system configuration, a popup comes up asking whether you want the operation to be executed! Of course, I want that, that is why I clicked on it! For a power user this is the first thing to disable.

To disable user access control, go to control panel->user account->turn user account control off.

4. Use ReadyBoost to extend RAM - If you have below 2GB or below, you can use readyboost feature of Vista to improve performance. For this, you will need a high speed USB 2.0 memory stick (flash drive). Vista will use this as an extension to RAM. This improves system performance and also reduces load on harddisk there by extending its lifespan.

5. Reduce graphics and other UI features - Windows Vista by default has a pretty jazzy user interface. If you are a power user, you rarely bother about these UI features. Disabling these features will dramatically reduce load on your processor and memory. This is one method sure to speed up your experience on Windows Vista.

To optimize system configuration for maximum performance, go to control panel->performance information and tools->advanced tools (on the left menu)->adjust the appearance and performance of windows->Select Adjust for best performance radio button and press Apply.

6. Remove unnecessary startup programs - You might have couple of startup programs configured. Remove all the unnecessary programs to reduce startup time and to improve overall system performance. Anti-virus programs are notorious for reducing system performance and increasing harddisk load.

You can check out startup programs using regedit command (use with caution!). Find all the startup programs under computer->HKEY_CURRENT_USER->Software->Microsoft->Windows->CurrentVersion->Run. (User can also use Windows Defender for this)

7. Disable unncessary services - Your system might have a lot of services which you may not need. But identifying them may not be very easy. Open up control panel->administrative tools->services and stop/disable services. Some of the services I disabled are Windows Search, Windows Defender, Windows Cardspace etc.

8. Disable Windows Search Indexing - As i have written earlier, disabling Windows Search indexing may improve performance substantially, especially when you have a new system.

9. Monitor tasks running - Monitor your task manager regularly. Look for any processes which hogs memory/processor resource. Also monitor for programs which may be accessing harddisk frequently. Find out the real use of resource intensive processes and if not required, remove them.

10. Buy a new PC/ upgrade RAM - If your system performance is still low, you probably need to buy a new PC to run Windows Vista. Also remember to have atleast 2GB RAM for optimal performance!

HOW TO ACCESS BANNED SITES?? top 10 ways

Before you try out any of the methods listed here, I suggest you install Firefox browser. For faster and smoother internet access, Firefox is the best browser available out there. When you are accessing proxy sites or similar sites ensure that you use Firefox not Internet Explorer.

Internet censoring is now everywhere. In my office Orkut is blocked since there was an Orkut virus scare. Countries such as China, Saudi Arabia etc. routinely block many websites. Interestingly entire blogger.com and similar blog sites were banned in India not long ago. So it is no wonder that many of us are looking for ways to access blocked websites.

Last week I did an investigation into the various methods available for bypassing website access restrictions. I have shortlisted them below as ” Top 10 methods to access banned websites”.

Top Ten methods to access banned websites

1. Use IP address - This is the simplest way to bypass domain name based access restrictions. Instead of the domain name such as www.webstuffscan.com use the direct IP address. To find the IP address use one of the free host to IP online conversion tools such as this.

2. Use Google cache - If you are not bothered whether the content is latest on a site, Google cache is best. Do a Google search for the site and then click on the cached link below the search results.

3. Use an Anonymizer - In this method you access a third party site which in turn routes your request to the required server. Some services provide URL encryption also. The problem is that most of these servers are no longer free. Do a google search for the latest list as this is a very dynamic area Following are some services which still works(free!),

Proxify - Hides original URL and provides an array of access of options. The is one of the best free servers.

Block Stop - New guy in the town!

Anonymouse - This works, but URL is visible and hence may be blocked by the filtering software.

4. Use Online Translation Tools - In this method, we can use the translation service as a web proxy. Following are the best links I know of. Again Google is your best friend for more resources.

Altavista Babel fish - In the above replace www.webstuffscan.com with the site you want. You can also visit Babel fish site.

Google Translate - Similar to Babel fish.

5. Use Google Mobile search - Google mobile search works, but output may not be optimal. This is very similar to using a Web proxy.

6. Use a public Proxy server - There are many free proxy servers out in the Web. Note that in order to use these you have to change internet connection settings in Internet Explorer or whatever browser you use. This is one such list.

7. Get web pages via email - This is useful if you need a single Web page. Obviously accessing large files is not possible. Given below are some examples.

You can use SEND http://www.yahoo.com/ in the body of the message and send it to agora@dna.affrc.go.jp to retrieve yahoo.com home page.


You can also check out services at web2mail which includes web page subscriptions.

G.E Boyd has an extensive list of servers. Note that many in the list are no longer working.

9. Use Tor Distributed Proxy - Tor is an advanced proxy server using multiple anonymous servers for a single Web request. This requires an application to be downloaded and installed.

8. Your own proxy server - This is an advanced technique and is probably the best. This requires your own proxy server hosted either at your home or at a hosting service provider. You can enable SSL encryption and prevent any snooping on the content as well. Also put some access control, otherwise someone can find the service and misuse it (Trust me, there are many who are looking for such an opportunity!).

Use Apache Web server as proxy server - A bit complex setup.

Use Privoxy - - This is the recommended approach. Please see this page for more details.

Use PHPProxy as a Web Proxy - You can use PHPProxy to setup a Web proxy.

10. Use alternate content providers - When everything fails, you can use alternate service providers. For example if Gmail is blocked at your place, you can take another obscure mail address and enable email forward at Gmail.

Important!

Be careful when you are using public proxy servers. It is possible for the guy who is hosting the service to snoop on the data that is passing through. So I wouldn’t recommend putting any important information such credit card details when you are using public proxy server method.

update 1 (Nov 26) - Sharjeel has got an impressive list of 300+ web proxies.

update 2 (Dec 22) - Check out my latest how to on running your own windows Http proxy server.

AudioAmplifier:fix iphone's low ringer volume problem

One of the complaints of the iPhone has surprisingly been iPhone's low ringer volume. It seems to be well below the standard, in terms of volume, established by other mobile handsets.

Most of the users have blamed iPhone's tiny speakers to be the culprit of this problem. However I had reported that the culprit in fact could be the audio itself and not the speaker and you could use a hack to fix this problem.

I had even published an iPhone tip on how to resolve the low volume problem of your iPhone's ringer by using a a loud, high frequency audio custom ringtone rather than ringtones currently available on the iPhone.

However, Erica over @ Tuaw had figured out that the Celestial framework folder (/System/Library/Frameworks/Celestial.framework/) had a Maximum Volume property list. She had observed that adjusting the Default -> Default value up to 0.99, up from 0.7 had boosted the iPhone's speaker volume.

iPhone hacking genius Nick "Drudge" Penree has apparently made use of this iPhone tip from Erica to develop a native iPhone application which will do all the work for you and thus save you of all the hassles. The iPhone App called AudioAmp is available as a package in Installer.app.

Let me know if the iPhone App helps!

iPhone GPS Hack: Navizon Lite brings Virtual GPS to the iPhone for Free

One of features missing from the iPhone's rich feature list is a Global Positioning System (GPS), which is now rumored will be available only in the 2nd generation iPhone sometime next year along with 3G support.

Navizon had released its Virtual GPS product "Navizon" as a native iPhone application as an alternative to the lack of the GPS feature. However, after the 15 day fully functional trial period; you need to buy it for $24.99.

They have now released a freeware version of one of the popular native iPhone applications called Navizon Lite, which they claim is accurate to about 1500 meters (1 mile).

For those of you who like me are not familiar with this Virtual GPS stuff, then here is some information you might find useful. Navizon is a software-only wireless positioning system which triangulates signals broadcasted from Wi-Fi access points and Cellular towers. It is based on a collaborative database where users who have a GPS device can contribute data on Cell towers and Wi-Fi access points so that other members of the community can simulate a Virtual GPS on their phone.

Interesting?? Want to know how to install it on your iPhone? Then here is some more good news, Navizon's Virtual GPS Lite can be installed using the very cool Installer.app so installing it on your iPhone should not be too complicated.

Once you have Navizon installed on your iPhone, you need to first create an account at Navizon website which needs to be used to login using the Navizon application on your iPhone. All you then needs to do is just click on the "Locate Me" button and see where Navizon puts you on the map.

Navizon claims that this version of Virtual GPS will let you get your position using the closest cell towers around you with an accuracy of approximately 1500 meters (1 mile), something similar to what Google Maps offers with its "My location" feature.

If you are looking at more accuracy then you can check out Navizon (full version) as it includes the power of Wi-Fi positioning combined with Cellular positioning, offering you an accuracy of approximately 10 to 30 meters in an urban setting. The full version will set you back by $24.99.

However, based on initial feedback on Virtual GPS since it is works on peer to peer positioning; it might not work well everywhere as some have complained of getting "Unable to Locate - Your location could not be identified. No Known Cells or Wi-Fi nodes in range" error messages. It is also recommended to try the "locate me" option twice (at least on the first attempt) since the Wi-Fi scanner takes some time to be fully operational.

Here is the link to Navizon's support forum for iPhone users getting the "Cannot Locate and the Lockup" error message.

Since it is available for free you can definitely try it out to see if it works well in your vicinity and as always don't forget to leave your feedback the native iPhone app in the comments.

AIRTEL 8Mbps plan sucks

by

sidharth

I knew about this a week or so before it actually rolled out into the market and was talking with one of my IT guys and both of us were very kicked about the speed, more so since we are both heavy on downloading.

But more disappointment’s than excitement post the launch. While the speeds are excellent what tends to really play foul are the download limits assigned. The cheapest 8Mbps plan is priced at 2222/- per month. Take a look at the excel below where i compare it to the 256 plan i have currently.

Key Things to Note

1. The GB Limit will be reached in 2.4 minutes approximately.

2. 8Gb is equal to roughly only 12 movies.

3. If you were to keep downloading for another 2.2 minutes post crossing the limit i.e another 8GB ,the additional charges which would apply would be 0.90 Paise x 8000 MB = 7200 Rupees.

4. Cost per movie is 202 rupees which is more than what original VCD’s would cost.

So all kudos to Airtel to launch such plans but they need a more competitive pricing policy. Maybe come up with top up options which would allow users to make their plans unlimited. For someone like me, and a lot many more in India where downloading is a big activity these plans tend not to appeal eventually.

Incidentally, i would also request everyone reading this to please visit the Airtel site and look at the current broadband packages. Airtel appears to be deleting a lot of the previous options which were available, if yours is one that does not appear to be there but you are still getting a net connection, they might have put you on a different plan on their own. As illogical as it may sound , Airtel’s customer care executives made it very clear that the company was under no obligation to inform customers of plan changes. I mentioned this earlier as well on a post here.

iphone gps module hack

Will O’Brien over at Hack a Day posted this cool iPhone Hack. The guys over at The Part Foundry have made a device that allows you to use GPS with your iPhone.




“The iphone GPS module allows jail broken iphones to finally have GPS functionality. This module is in development and will be shipping in February. All software is open source and more applications are being written every day. This module gives you the ability to explore all the benefits that GPS on a platform that is small enough to put on a keychain. Plans are already underway for a stylish plastic enclosure as well.”