Reveal Asterisk(****) Passwords Using Javascript

Want to Reveal the Passwords Hidden Behind Asterisk (****) ?

Follow the steps given below-

1) Open the Login Page of any website. (eg. http://mail.yahoo.com)

2) Type your 'Username' and 'Password'.

3) Copy and paste the JavaScript code given below into your browser's address bar and press 'Enter'.

javascript: alert(document.getElementById('Passwd').value);


4) As soon as you press 'Enter', A window pops up showing Password typed by you..!


Note :- This trick may not be working with firefox.

By monty with No comments

Remotely Shutdown Your Computer With Cellphone

 This video will show you how to shutdown your computer from anywhere using a cell phone, Microsoft Outlook and a free account from www.kwiry.com

By monty with No comments

How to speed up the Help dialog in Office 2007 and 2010?

When we are in a hurry we don’t like the fact that Office Help takes long to connect to the web and then help us out. Slow internet connection annoys us as the Help Dialog in Microsoft Office tries to download new content as we open it. The feature of online help is there to benefit us from the latest help files. However, most of the times we want to get things done fast without having to wait for it. By default, the Help Dialog is set to online help.  In order to overcome this problem and speed up the Help Dialog in Office 2007 and 2010 we can change its settings. There is a simple trick to speed up the Help Dialog in Office 2007 and 2010. Follow these easy steps to speed up the Help Dialog in Office 2007 and 2010:

1.    Press the F1 key to open the Word Help dialog box.

2.      Click on the “Connected to Office.com” button if you are using Word 2010 or the “Connected to Office Online” button if you are using Word 2007.

3.      Click on “Show content only from this computer” from the menu.

By following this method you will speed up the Help Dialog in all the applications of Office 2007 and 2010 by automatically altering the settings.

By monty with No comments

How to quickly repair your Mobile Phone dropped in water?

Many of you get your mobile phone wet by one way or another. You worry as you mistakenly drop your mobile phone in water. It can also get wet if you are out in a heavy rain.  However, there is no need to panic. It is possible to save your wet mobile phone by quickly repairing it. In order to save your mobile phone from water damage, you can consider these easy and simple solutions:

Act rapidly :

The first thing you have to do in order to save your wet mobile phone is to act rapidly. Quickly remove all the detachable parts as well as covers possible such as the back cover, battery, the SIM card, memory card etc. Next, take a piece of cloth or a tissue paper to wipe the excess water you are able to notice within the mobile phone. Make sure that you dry it completely. If you don' t do this, the water inside the mobile phone will begin to evaporate and gather in places which will be difficult to reach.

This will save your wet mobile phone and it will start working if it was under water for just a little while.

Using a hairdryer :

Take a hairdryer and begin drying the mobile phone while giving more consideration to the place where the battery is located. The battery housing usually consists of tiny holes to let in air (so giving more space for water) inside the mobile phone.

Make sure that you are not holding the hairdryer very near to the mobile phone. Keeping it too close to the mobile phone may harm the electrical mechanism of the mobile phone. Keep on drying the mobile phone from a safe distance for about twenty to thirty minutes.

If solution number 1 and solution number 2 don't work, try solution number 3.

Drying for a long time: 

Take off the covers as well as battery from the mobile phone. Put the phone in a dry as well as warm place to let the water inside the phone evaporate gradually from the little holes in the mobile phone.

By monty with 1 comment

How to make Greeting Cards with Word 2007?

You can make homemade cards for your friends and family on any occasion if you don't get time to buy cards from the shop. You can make greeting cards with Word 2007. You can make greeting cards with Word 2007 for many occasions and events as well as the Get Well, Friendship cards etc. As you decide to make greeting cards with Word 2007, you can make one card for everyone or a customized one for every individual. You can later print them on a greeting card paper or just the regular one. Follow these steps in order to make greeting cards with Word 2007:

Click on the Office Button from the top left corner.

Click on New. The New Document window will open.

From the list under Templates, click on Greeting Cards.

You can choose the option you want from under the Greeting Cards section.

You will be connected to the Microsoft Office Online site. You can select from hundreds of templates or you can go to this website in the browser and download the templates from there.
 You can preview every template in Word and then click the Download button.

The Office Genuine Advantage validation dialog box will appear. You might also have to download the updated version of OGA to be capable of downloading a template.

You can customize the downloaded card by changing the colors, fonts etc or adding  your message before printing it.

 Now you can print the card.

You can make the holiday card even more personal by adding your own photos to it. You should always have greeting card paper by the side of your printer for ceremonious events.

By monty with No comments

3 ways your blog can get you a hot date

Hey, being addicted to blogging is a lot like being in love, which we’ve covered on Romance Tracker before.  But regardless of how great a relationship you have with your blog, it will never hold your hand or snuggle with you at night . . . and while you could try kissing your computer screen if you want, we sure don’t recommend it.

So if you ever want to actually meet another living, breathing human being to share your life with, it’s probably a good idea to pull yourself away from the computer eventually, change out of your pajamas, and get out of the house. As a professional blogger myself, though, I know that’s more difficult than it sounds.

Until you can get your addiction under control, then, here’s a list of three ways you can use your blog to set the stage for finding that special someone.  You’ll have to let go of the keyboard eventually, of course . . . but by following these simple tips, you might be lucky enough to score a date with someone who actually doesn’t mind if you bring your laptop with you to that four-star restaurant.

Top Three Ways Your Blog Can Get You a Hot Date

1. Use your blog to meet other people interested in your niche

Despite what people say, opposites really don’t attract . . . and you have a better chance at maintaining a long, rewarding romantic relationship if you find a person who shares your interests.  If you’re starting a blog, make sure you concentrate on a niche that you have a passion for . . . and don’t be embarrassed to advertise your interests.  While finding a date shouldn’t be your main reason for blogging, if you stick with it you’re bound to meet plenty of other people who are passionate about the same hobbies and topics you are.

2.  Improve your communication skills by posting and interacting with your readers

Good communication is essential for success in blogging as well as relationships, and starting a blog can be a great way for a shy person to develop their communication skills, speak their mind, and become more confident.  Rather than limiting your communication to posts alone, make sure you interact with your readers through comments, return emails and other methods.

3. Monetize your blog so you can actually afford to buy someone dinner

You may start out blogging because you love your niche topic, but you’re doing yourself a disservice if you don’t eventually monetize your blog and make money from what you enjoy.  It might not be fair, but many potential dates will judge you by your income and professionalism, and telling someone that you actually get an income from your hobby will get you plenty of points.  Monetizing your blog may take a lot of time and dedication, but make it a goal to eventually earn money from your writing.

By monty with No comments

Upload text and picture direct from computer

There are bloggers who want to be able to prepare their posts including text and photos in their computer and upload it direct to Blogger. Some have tried using copy-paste from Microsoft WORD which obviously will not work.

Here is a solution - Windows Live Writer. To add a photo while in Windows Live Writer, either click the photo icon or use the INSERT drop-down menu as shown in the screen shot below:

If you wish, you can also add an album. Click PHOTO ALBUM. For this, you will have to have a Window Live ID and be logged in. Once logged in, click ADD PHOTO and browse to the photo in your computer you want to add to the album. Then click OPEN and the photo will be added to the album.

By monty with No comments

What is new in the upcoming wordpress 3.3

Highlights:
    * New media uploader (Plupload)
    * Welcome Screen on 1st time install and 1st time post-update
    * Admin dynamically display on devices of various screen sizes
    * Improved Toolbar (formerly admin bar)
    * Improved Metadata API
    * Improved Settings API
    * Improved Editor API
    * Implement language packs for core, plugins, and themes
    * Performance improvements
    * Merge most admin css files
    * Improved Help/Screen/Options

User Features:
    * Admin doctype changed to HTML5 (#18202)
    * Show admin bar in backend by default (#17899)
    * Drag and drop multi-file uploading (except older IE)
    * Fix Press This editors
    * Switch admin menus to flyouts from dropdowns
    * WebMatrix support
    * Improve cron locking; avoid multiple cron processes looping over the same events
    * Add pointers feature, and pointer to admin bar
    * Introduce help tabs and WP_Screen
    * Style tweaks to the update nag

Dashboard:
 * Ensure text in the dashboard recent comments widget wraps up properly

Posts:
    * When inserting a Gallery to be ordered by Date/Time use the post_date field for ordering rather than ID
    * Rename 'Post Tags' to 'Tags'
    * Make DFW content width match exactly the reported width from the theme
    * Improve the image drag-resize detection in the visual editor (supported in FF and IE only), remove the size
    * class if the image is soft-resized
    * Add TinyMCE command to handle opening of the upload/insert popup, fix the shortcut "Alt+Shift+M", fix the "image" button in DFW
    * Allow Apostrophes in Post Passwords
    * Add post formats to quick edit and bulk edit
    * Hide post title field in DFW if title is not supported by the current post type or missing
    * Clean up remnants from having negative Post_ID


Media:

   * Merge media buttons into one
   * Add the styling for "drop area" to Media->Add New
   * Add support for rar and 7z file uploading

Links,Comments:
   * Use WP_Editor when editing or replying to comments
   * Use 'View Post' instead of '#' for view post links in comment rows

Appearance:
  * Use the Settings fields/sections API in Twenty Eleven
   * Load all Parent theme stylesheets before Child theme stylesheets in the TinyMCE Editor
   * Clean up Plugin/Theme uploads after successfully installing them
   * Improved Theme upload and validation
   * Avoid losing widgets when switching themes
   * Make Distraction Free Writing content width match exactly the reported width from the theme
   * Allow current_theme_supports() to be used to check for specific post formats
   * Improved Menus
   * Contextual help for Twenty Eleven theme options page

Plugins:
   * Improved Plugin upload and validation
   * Stop remembering the last viewed plugins screen; always show all plugins when returning to plugins.php

Tools:
   * Add the Tumblr importer to the Importers List
   * Add wxr_export_skip_postmeta filter for skipping postmeta in exports


Users:
  * Removed user option to disable Toolbar (admin-bar in 3.2) in the Dashboard

Settings:
   * Add postname to Settings > Permalinks and remove the help text talking about permalink performance; make the slugs (and /archives/ rewrite base) translatable
    * Clarify Settings > Privacy
    * Use title case in Settings > General
    * Disallow indexing wp-admin and wp-includes in robots.txt


Install Process Multisite:
    * Allow creating sites with IDN domains
    * Move network/settings.php POST handling out of network/edit.php
    * Dissolve wp-admin/network/edit.php
    * Add 'Network Enable' link after installing a theme in the network admin
    * Use update_blog_details() in wpmu_update_blogs_date()
    * Change Network Settings to just Settings
    * Implement bulk update for network/themes.php
    * Fix inviting existing users to a site with email confirmation
    * Check for plugin/theme updates every hour when hitting update-core.php, not just themes.php/plugins.php


And many more....

By Anonymous with No comments

Eight formatting tips for your blog that can help maximize your conversions

When writing blog posts or copy content for websites, the rules of engagement are quite often very different to those for print or other media.

Due to the electronic and visual nature of how web content is delivered, there are certain factors regarding web writing and formatting which make it unique amongst the other mediums.

For instance things like the screen size and resolution can differ greatly for people reading the exact same content, especially now that there are so many smart devices and tablets.

Also there has never been a phenomenon like the Internet which is able to provide on-demand content anytime of the day to virtually anyone.

Therefore if you’d like to increase your chances of converting or achieving your intended goal, your site’s content needs to hold people’s attention and deliver your message in an efficient and effective way.

1) Write shorter chunks of copy or content of no more than about 4 or 5 lines at a time.

There are no strict rules on the Internet when it comes to paragraphs so feel free to separate long sentences if you find they take up many lines.

Splitting up your writing like this will increase scan-ability and decrease the chances of your message being lost somewhere in a sea of words. A good practice is to group sentences into chunks of no more than 4 or 5 lines.

Note: Even though there are many orthodox literary conventions that you can afford to break on the Internet, there is one which you should not violate – and that is, always ensure you have the proper spelling.

2) Use a larger and easily readable font

Typography is quickly becoming a valuable skill for Internet marketers and bloggers because using an optimum font and line spacing can be one of the key things which determine how long readers stay on your site.

This is because the more easily and less wearisome your site is to read, the better the experience your visitors will have. Therefore it is a good idea to use a large an easy-to-read font if possible.

3) Use grouping & visuals to organize content

Grouping is where you clearly segment sections of your content using columns and concise headings and messages, together with some visuals such as icons or images.

This type of delivery makes it very reader-friendly and allows your visitors to access the information they need without having to scour your site for it.

The example below represents a perfect case of grouping used by Apple on their iPad page. As a matter of fact you’ll notice that the Apple site contains many examples of grouping in action.

A lot of WordPress themes now give you the ability to create columns and tables which can help you achieve the above format.

4) Use numerals, ampersands & other symbols to shorten headings (or sub-headings)

This is a simple yet effective way to deliver your message concisely. For instance take the following example:

Without using symbols and abbreviation:
“Earn hundreds of points and get exclusive access to our member specials”

With symbols and abbreviations:
“Earn 100s of points & get exclusive access to our member specials”

5) Use bolding to highlight what you want your readers to see

The simple act of making a word or words bold can make a message stand out. As long as you don’t overdo it this is a great way to facilitate easy scanning of your pages.

6) Use bullet lists of no more than 5 or 6 items

    * Bullet lists are great for breaking the monotony of reams of text and a handy way to link related points together.
    * A bullet list should be no more than 5 or so items so as to ensure that your readers are not overwhelmed with content.
    * You don’t have to use bullets or dots. Icons and other images are sometimes the most effective if you can keep them relevant to your message.
    * Your second-best bullet point should be placed last so that someone scanning your list will be surprised and impressed to read it because people usually expect the least useful point to be the last!

7) Use icons and images to enhance your message delivery

The placement of relevant images or icons around copy text can serve a useful purpose of drawing your readers eyes to your message. The key is not to overdo it.

8 ) Ensure your text links are easily recognizable

When you place a link on your page, you usually do so because you want your readers to click it. Therefore, if a piece of text looks like a link then people will more than likely click it.

By Anonymous with 1 comment

how to ensure your data stays safe

We are generating more data than ever before, and that data’s becoming increasingly important to businesses: whether it’s shared assets such as raw video, customer relationship management data or your top-secret plans for world domination, your data is priceless – and irreplaceable. So how do you ensure that your data stays safe?

                                                                     
A good server-based system can protect your data in several key ways. It can protect your data through consolidation; it can protect your data through redundancy; it can protect your data through security measures; and it can protect your data through backing up. More than anything, though, servers protect your data by being really, really tough.

Tougher than the rest

Because servers have to cope with more demanding environments than traditional PCs, they’re built differently: components are carefully chosen for maximum reliability, cases are built using the most robust, durable materials and designed to maximise airflow for more effective cooling, and they’re tested, tested and tested again to ensure that they deliver all day, every day.

Dell’s PowerEdge R910 rack server is a good example: it’s built like a tank, and it’s as smart as it is solid. Its processors boast advanced reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) features, its chassis is made from the most robust and durable materials, its components are subject to exceptionally strict quality standards and every single unit is tested and retested before it leaves the factory. It also includes embedded diagnostics to warn of potential problems before they occur.

Having rock-solid hardware is only part of the solution, though: you also need to protect against human error and other everyday disasters.

Everything in its right place

One of the most effective ways to keep data safe is to centralise it. No matter how smart your employees, if everybody’s data is their own responsibility there’s always a risk that it might be damaged: laptops can be lost, or dropped, or left in taxis (and often are, especially ones belonging to organisations who really ought to know better, such as the security forces), hard disks can fail, PCs can be compromised by malware, essential files can be accidentally overwritten and so on. By storing or keeping copies of important data centrally, you can ensure that when such problems occur – and in most organisations it’s definitely a case of “when” rather than “if” – they’re annoyances, not disasters of epic proportions.

With a server-based system, security is centralised: virus scanning, spam protection and email filtering can occur on the server, users’ file downloads can be screened and access to specific files or data can be limited to the people who actually need to use it, vastly reducing the risk of malware infection, data damage and people mucking about when they’re supposed to be working.

Centralising data benefits from other forms of security too. Uninterruptible power supplies can prevent power fluctuations or power cuts from damaging files, while hardware redundancy means that even hard disk failures can’t bring down your data: RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) systems use multiple hard disks so that if one disk fails, its data doesn’t disappear. Some servers use redundant power supplies too, which prevents the failure of a unit from stopping the server, while others use hot-swappable drives so that hard disks can be replaced without rebooting or powering down.

One of the biggest benefits of centralised data is easy backup: instead of hoping that everybody’s remembered to backup their files, a server-based system can automatically ensure that you have backups of everything that matters to your organisation. There are three ways to do that: with clones, with snapshots and with mirroring. A clone is an identical copy of a volume, such as a hard disk partition; a snapshot is a copy of a file or volume that’s been changed, which is like a clone but requires considerably less space; and mirroring is duplication of entire disks. Depending on the size of your organisation those backups might be stored on external hard disks or using a dedicated backup appliance such as Dell’s PowerVault DL.

Ahead in the clouds

In addition to traditional, on-site backups, firms are increasingly turning to the cloud. Cloud-based backup solutions connect you to secure, off-site data centres via the internet, enabling your organisation to benefit from enterprise-level hardware, encryption and security without breaking the bank. Whether it’s a single laptop or a stack of servers, cloud-based services such as Dell’s cloud-based backup protect you against software corruption, accidental file deletion, hard drive failures, theft and acts of God.

By Anonymous with No comments

Chrome finally coming to Android?

A snippet of code posted on Google's Chromium Code website reveals that Google's Chrome browser is to be ported to its Android smartphone operating system.It may seem like an obvious move for the two Google-operated products, but they've been run as completely separate entities - until now.

The Chromium website hosts Google's open-source features for the browser, and generally everything that appears there will later be integrated into the browser itself.

In the future everything is chrome

                                                                               
The Chrome Android code currently lacks the tabbed browsing and plug-ins that adorn its desktop counterpart.

Get your WebKit off


Coincidentally, the default WebKit browser that ships with Android phones uses much of the same code as Chrome's desktop client.The Android release will see Google taking on the likes of Firefox and Dolphin HD in the Android Market, but we could see a repeat of Chrome's steady increase in popularity on desktop PCs.

There's no word on whether or not Chrome will usurp the default WebKit browser on upcoming Android phones either, but it would make a lot of sense.

Expect to see the official announcement at Samsung Mobile's Unpacked 2011 event in San Diego on 11 October - which is where we're also expecting to see the unveiling of Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest iteration of Android, and the Google Nexus Prime.

By Anonymous with No comments

Secure your server: protect your most important assets

Virtualisation is big news for small and medium businesses, because it enables them to do much more work with much less kit. By running multiple operating systems on a single server, it can save firms a fortune – so it’s hardly surprising that small and medium sized businesses are embracing virtualisation in record numbers.

                                                     
That’s good news for all kinds of reasons – it’s reducing firms’ carbon footprint, making their IT more efficient and saving huge piles of cash – but unfortunately it seems that many businesses aren’t taking simple steps to protect their virtualised systems. So how can you keep your systems safe?

Simple steps:

When security firm Symantec surveyed nearly 700 companies in 28 different countries, it discovered a worrying trend: firms investing in virtualisation weren’t taking even the simplest steps to protect their data. Just 15% were backing up the data used in their virtual environments, and an incredible 80% weren’t protecting their virtual environments with anti-virus software.

That’s an incredibly risky approach, especially when securing your server is so simple. From the smallest start-up to the biggest agency, Dell has the security solutions to keep your stuff safe.

Multiple lines of defence:

In an ideal world there’d be a single technology that protected you from every conceivable threat, but of course life’s a bit more complicated than that. That’s why Dell has created four kinds of security solutions: security services, which provide a comprehensive range of monitoring, management and security consulting services; network security, which protects your business not just from malware such as viruses and worms but also from intruders and even spam; endpoint security, which protects the data on PCs, notebooks, servers and mobile devices; and data security, which enables you to protect sensitive data from prying eyes, digital disasters and good old-fashioned human error.

Secure the perimeter:

Dell’s doing to system management what it did with hardware, taking complex, proprietary technology, simplifying it and streamlining it. Protecting your network from intrusion’s easier than you might think. Appliances such as the Dell PowerConnect J-SRX series provide world-class firewall protection and IP Security (IPsec) virtual private networking technologies, and they’re easy to setup and require minimal configuration. Easy, quick and secure to deploy, even for security beginners, the J-SRX series provides superb intrusion protection, anti-virus protection, anti-spam screening and even web content filtering.

Better than a bouncer:

Dell also provides the tools you need to protect individual devices, from servers to mobile devices. Dell systems with Intel® vPro™ processor technology can automatically stop viruses from spreading, ensure critical data is securely stored and receive security updates from your server, even when the PCs are switched off. Remote diagnostics and repairs, asset inventory and zero-touch configuration enable you to deploy, manage and update your vPro systems without leaving your desk.

That’s not all. Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Services can be preinstalled on Dell systems to protect against malicious software and mail, restrict users’ access to unproductive, offensive or risky sites, and provide continuous protection for your mobile workforce – and it doesn’t require dedicated hardware or skilled IT staff to run it.

For larger networks, the Dell KACE K1000 Management Appliance offers even more powerful security including quarantining compromised devices, automatic software patch management for Windows and Mac OS X operating systems and applications, vulnerability scanning and secure web browsing.

Security saves money:

Dell also provides an extensive range of networked storage that can ensure every digital asset is archived. For smaller organisations backup solutions such as Dell PowerVault RD1000 removable disk storage offers low-cost, rock-solid, super-speedy backup, while larger organisations can benefit from the server-connected PowerVault MD3220 storage array’s incredible scalability, with support for up to 96 additional drives shared between up to four servers.

Whichever Dell security solutions you choose, the benefits can be significant. By protecting your data from disaster and unauthorised access and your systems from malicious software, risky websites and junk, Dell’s security solutions can massively reduce the risk of data loss, destruction or downtime. By ensuring your systems run 24/7, patching software vulnerabilities, enforcing company policies and helping you comply with relevant data protection legislation, Dell’s solutions can save you time, effort, and most of all, money.

The Dell difference:

Dell PowerEdge Servers are designed to work as hard as you do. We work closely with leading Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to deliver unrivalled performance and reliability in the most demanding environments, and our Dell PowerEdge tower servers and rack servers are built specifically for the most demanding jobs in creative, engineering and architectural design; web design and development; photo editing, finance and product design. With the latest technology in our scalable servers and storage solutions, Dell is the one-source partner to match your IT ambitions.

By Anonymous with No comments

Five Tools To Permanently Delete Sensitive Data From Your Hard Drive [Windows]

                          

 Let me show you how you can terminally and permanently delete files, not only from your hard drive, but also from other re-writable storage devices.

Low Level Formatting:

The kind of formatting most of us do is known as high level formatting, and whether you perform a quick format or not, your data won’t be deleted. What high level formatting does is set up the file system from scratch and in the process the information where files were stored is removed.

Low level formatting on the other hand re-initializes the disk and resets the values of each and every magnetic domain, which represents one bit, to zero.

Darik’s Boot And Nuke:

Low level formatting isn’t 100% efficient and may leave traces of data. If you wish to wipe an entire disk before you dispose of it, I recommend Darik’s Boot and Nuke, a boot disk that will automatically and completely delete data on any detected hard disk.

CCleaner:

                                                     
If you are already using CCleaner, you should know that it contains a Drive Wiper.

Open CCleaner and go to > Tools > Drive Wiper. You can wipe only free space or the entire drive, and you can choose up to 35 passes, meaning data will be overwritten with random strings of binary code 35 times. This very complex overwrite should make it impossible for anyone to restore the data originally saved in this space. When you’re happy with your settings click > Wipe and wait patiently.

SDelete:

Microsoft made it very easy to not delete files thoroughly. To make up for this potential security hole, they released a free command line utility called SDelete. This doesn’t make removing data any more convenient, but it can be considered a step in the right direction. Unfortunately it is a very small step, since Microsoft fails to provide instructions on how to properly open SDelete in the first place. Well, that’s what Bite-It ZONE is here for.

• Download the ZIP archive containing the tool and extract the folder.
• Click > [WINDOWS] + [R] to open the Run window.
• Type > cmd and click > OK to open the command prompt.
• Then move the > SDelete.exe file to the directory > C:\User\yourusername
• Now type a command in the command prompt, for example > sdelete -z to cleanse free space on your C: partition. A full list of commands is shown in the screenshot below.

Eraser:

Eraser is a freeware and open source security tool to completely remove data from your hard drive. It can overwrite data several times using randomized patterns of binary code. It essentially is a file shredder.

Eraser is more convenient than CCleaner’s Drive Wiper because it can delete and shred single files, rather than just wiping all free space on a drive, and it is integrated with Windows Explorer (right-click menu). Moreover, Eraser provides you with a host of advanced settings, for example different file and space erasure methods, the option to replace erased files with other files to allow plausible ‘deniability’, and schedule erasure of files, folders, recycle bin, or unused disk space.

The tool is also available as a portable app called EraserDrop Portable. It is part of the PortableApps suite.

Other Tools:

There are several more file shredders that can securely delete files from your hard drive.If you need to secure sensitive data without deleting it, you should seriously look into encryption and the article Encrypt Or Completely Wipe Files With the Axcrypt Encryption Utility [Windows] provides an excellent start.

By Anonymous with No comments

How To Temporarily Reset Your Phone & Clear The SD Card [Android]

                                                             
Here,I’m going to show you how to save your entire phone setup – including the OS settings, applications and data – to a storage area, and then how to completely reset the phone to factory settings and clear the SD card. In the future, if the phone is ever yours again, you can simply restore from backup and it’s like the phone was never gone.

Reset Your Android Like New Again:

It is surprisingly easy to reset your Android phone. What you really have to worry about is making sure you don’t lose anything important that you might have saved on your phone at some point – and so that you always have the ability to reclaim the phone as your own again.

In the following case, I am running a Motorola Droid with the CyanogenMod ROM. The instructions below are nearly identical for your standard ROM.

Back Up Your Phone Settings & All Data:

The first thing you’ll want to do is install ROM Manager off the Android Market and do a full backup of your current ROM.

                                                     

Once you click “Backup Current ROM“, it’ll reboot your phone and then take a full backup of your apps, settings and OS configuration to your SD card. It can take a while so make sure your phone is plugged in. When it’s done, the next thing you’ll want to do is move that backup file (along with all of your photos, music and other data) onto your computer or some other external storage device.

To do this, plug your phone into your computer, pull down the top menu and click the USB status. On the next screen, click on “Turn on USB Storage“. This will mount your phone as a drive in File Explorer.

                                                                       

It’s as simple as highlighting all of the files in that drive, and copying them to a backup location on your computer or external hard drive.

                                                             

In my case, the entire backup was about 2.35 GB and took about 2 or 3 minutes. Just let the transfer do its thing, and when you’re done, your Android phone settings are now completely backed up and ready for use at some future date.

                                                                   

Restoring Your Android To Factory Settings:

Now that you’ve backed everything up, it’s time to wipe out everything and transform the phone back in time to the first day you bought it. Well, I guess in my case that actually means back to the first day I installed the CyanogenMod ROM, but you get my point.

The process to do this is ridiculously easy (which is why it’s so important to back up everything first). Go into the settings menu and click on “Privacy“.

                                                                 

On the next screen, and click on “Factory data reset“.

                                                             

Read the warning screen carefully, because trust me, they are not kidding. Everything gets wiped. That’s Everything with a capital E.

                                                               

Upon reboot, you’ll need to go through the initial configuration steps that you did when you first bought your phone – including either logging into or creating a Google Account. Then the standard home screen will appear.

                                                                 

Just to make sure everything is fresh and new on the SD card, it doesn’t hurt to go into settings and click on the SD card & phone storage settings menu. In here, unmount the SD card and then click on “Format SD card“.

                                                               

Now, you’ve completely and thoroughly wiped out everything on the phone and it is ready for the next user. It is currently using the same phone number and cellular account that I had previously. If you’re switching accounts, then you’ll want to take your SIM card out and insert the SIM card for the new user.

By Anonymous with No comments

Five Signs Your Hard Drive Lifetime is Ending & What To Do...???

Every one of us owns precious files like personal documents, photos, videos, or audio files, and we typically store them on hard drives. Few people realize that most electronic storage devices, including hard drives, have a rather limited lifetime when compared to the ancient ways of storing information, such as stone, papyrus, paper, or old school records. The average lifetime of a stationary hard drive today is around 5 to 10 years, depending on the type and manufacturer, and it rapidly declines if the drive is subject to strong variations in temperature, humidity, and motion as in not being stationary.

                                                         
Since a majority of people today own laptops and external hard drives, which get dragged around quite a bit, a realistic hard drive lifetime is probably around 3 to 5 years. This is an extremely short time to reliably store important data. In the best of cases, hard drives fail gradually, giving you the chance to react, get a copy of your data, and replace the storage device before facing a fatal failure. There are a host of signs that hint to a gradual failure of your hard drive. If you are unsure how much life is left on your hard drive, read this article to find out what signs may reveal an approaching failure.

1. Slowing Down Computer, Frequent Freezes, Blue Screen Of Death:

These are very unspecific signs that can be caused by a million different things. However, regardless of what the issue behind these symptoms is, it is recommended that you immediately make a backup. If these problems occur after a fresh installations or in Windows Safe Mode, it is almost certain that it is due to bad hardware, and possibly a failing hard drive.

                                                         
2. Corrupted Data:

If you’re beginning to find files that fail to open and are corrupted even though they saved without errors or if files suddenly disappear, you should get worried. While again this could be due to a multitude of issues, it is also a typical sign for a gradual hard drive failure.

                                                                       
3. Accumulation Of Bad Sectors:

Bad sectors are areas of the hard drive that do not maintain data integrity. They are automatically masked by the operating system and thus hard to identify, especially if large amounts of the disk are currently in use. If you actually run into bad sectors, however, that certainly is a bad sign.

                                                                 
You can run a manual disk check to identify errors that Windows has not spotted, yet. In Windows 7, go to > Start > Computer and right-click on the disk or partition you wish to check. Select > Properties, in the window that opens switch to the > Tools tab and click > Check now… In the Checking Disk window place a checkmark next to > Automatically fix file system errors and > Scan for an attempt recovery of bad sectors.

Windows will also check for bad sectors, when you perform a full format or chkdsk command.

4. Strange Sounds:

When you hear strange noises coming from your hard drive, it may be too late already. A repetitive sound also known as the click of death is caused by the head as it is trying to write data and recovers from errors in doing so. Grinding or screeching noises indicate that parts of the hardware, for example the bearings or spindle motor, are failing.

5. S.M.A.R.T. Data:

There are tools that aim to predict hard drive failure by reading the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data that is recorded by the operating system. Unfortunately, like most other methods listed above, S.M.A.R.T. is notoriously unreliable in predicting hard drive failure and the catastrophe will often happen before the warning of S.M.A.R.T. kicks in. If you have a working hard drive, however, and would like to have a look at its S.M.A.R.T. data, check out this article - 4 Tools To Predict and Prevent Hard Drive Failure

                                                             
I Think My Hard Drive Is Failing, What Shall I Do?

So you are worried that a hard drive failure is just around the corner? The truth is, even if you are not worried, it is! The only thing you can do is always keep backups of your data on a second hard drive. The likelihood that both drives will fail simultaneously are very rare. An exception would be natural disasters like floods or fires. For these cases, I recommend to keep a copy of your most important data in a different physical location, for example at work or with a friend, or possibly on a remote server, for example by using an online backup solution.

                                                                         
Conclusion:

Do not rely on signs or software to tell you whether you have a failing hard drive. It is more likely than not that it will fail unexpectedly and without any warning signs whatever. Rather than trying to forecast something that is even less predictable than the weather, you should rely on backups.

By Anonymous with No comments

INFOGRAPHIC : Making The First Page Of Search Results

If there is one area of the Internet where the wars are vicious and cut-throat, it’s the search engines.  Ever since Google burst onto the scene, it’s been a constant battle between them and Microsoft and Yahoo, each one constantly trying to outdo the other, in exchange for a bit more market share.  In many ways, this is good for us, the users of the Internet, because these companies will constantly keep on innovating and bringing out cool new services and apps to keep us loyal.

                                                             
But personally speaking, I am quite often taken aback at the amount of money that companies like Google spend in trying to stay the top dog.  And you have to wonder who will be the next bloodied casualty, especially with persistent reports that Microsoft’s Bing is losing a staggering $11 million a day.

Our infographic today comes courtesy of Search Engine Journal which shows a timeline history of the search engines, starting with Lycos and Webcrawler in 1994.  Then steadily over the years, we see household names springing up such as Yahoo, AltaVista, MSN and of course Google.  The infographic also shows tips on how to make page one of search results.

Did you know that the person to call themselves an SEO expert was in 1999?  These days, I get about 10 so-called SEO experts pitching me their services every day in my inbox.  Suddenly I yearn for pre-1999 when there were none!

Let us know what you think of the infographic.  Before Google started making waves, what were your favourite search engines?  Are you old enough to remember Lycos and Webcrawler?  What would be your tips for making it to the front page of search results?  Let us know in the comments...

Source: search engine journal

By Anonymous with No comments

How to find your temporary Internet files?

Temporary Internet files are a cache of Web page content that's stored on your hard disk, enabling you to quickly view Web pages you've already seen, rather than have to wait when your computer downloads all the content of a Web page each time you want to see it. If your computer ascertains that you already have the Web page in the temporary Internet files folder and the Web page hasn't been updated since then, it gives you the version that's already in the folder. On the one hand, it's a convenience, but on the other hand, at some point you might find that your hard drive is getting pretty full, in the same way that you keep throwing stuff into your garage until there's no more room left for the car. In that case, it's time to clean up and declutter.

Depending on which browser you use (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc.), you have a different procedure for emptying your cache, and a bonus is that your browser will operate more efficiently, as well. If you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you'll find your temporary Internet files in your C drive.

Another reason you might want to get rid of your temporary Internet files is because anyone who has access to your computer is able to see all the sites that you've viewed if they look in your temporary Internet files folder. Be aware that even when you delete the contents of this folder, there are still traces left of the sites you've visited. If you really want to clean everything out, you may need more specific software to do a thorough job. You also have the option to leave some sites in your temporary Internet files folder, either because you plan on accessing these sites frequently or because it looks awfully suspicious to have absolutely nothing in this folder.

By Anonymous with No comments

How do you hide your IP address?

The reason you might want to hide your IP address is if you want to stay anonymous on the Internet, so that sites you visit won't be able to trace you. Law enforcement officers or detectives who don't want their IP address left in the log of the Websites they visit in the course of their work are examples of people who need to cover their tracks as they gather sensitive information. You have a number of options, with the most usual one being the use of a proxy server. When you connect with a proxy server and ask for a resource available on another server, the proxy connects with the other server or brings up what you ask for from a cache. Some proxy servers don't pass along your IP address, but some will. Some charge for their services and some don't.

A transparent proxy does pass along your IP address, so it won't do a very good job of hiding your identity. An anonymous proxy doesn't pass along your IP address, but it does identify itself as a proxy server when connecting with the other server, while a distorting proxy provides an incorrect IP address. A high anonymity proxy doesn't pass along your IP address and it doesn't identify itself as a proxy server.

If you install proxy server software on your computer, you will either pay a one-time fee or pay with a monthly subscription fee, but you'll find that it works faster than the above browser-configured proxy servers. Finally, VPN (virtual private networks) guard your data and identity over the Internet. They're used by people who want to reach Websites that are only available to those living in a certain country and come in handy if you're traveling and want to still access Websites in your country of origin, or if you live in a country with high levels of censorship, such as China, Iran or North Korea.

By Anonymous with No comments

What is a blogroll?

A blogroll is a listing of other blogs that you either subscribe to or that you recommend. People often post a blogroll on their blog, either on the right- or left-hand side of the page. On the one hand, you may think that you're doing your readers a favor by pointing them in the direction of other resources that they may find useful, as well as creating more online traffic with cross-links, and the blogs that you recommend might end up getting more hits and therefore a higher page rank. On the other hand, if you want your readers to stay on your page, but you give them links to other pages, you may find them hopping off on a journey away from your blog.
At any rate, if you decide to have a blogroll, keep it under 75 links or it will probably be ignored by search engines such as Google. In addition, any sites that you write about inside your blog will be ignored, too.

By Anonymous with No comments

How to check if your photo camera can take infrared photos

Infrared photography has many applications, such as cosmic photos, recovering texts of water damaged documents, quality checks for hidden material flaws, surveillance and public safety, or aesthetic purposes.

You would imagine that you need special equipment to take infrared photos. Well, for the “far” infrared spectrum (thermal light), indeed, you need it. But for the “near” infrared, all you need is a digital camera that doesn’t have a filter that blocks infrared light, and an infrared filter.

How to test your camera for IR capability: check if it can see beams emitted from a common infrared remote control (point it towards your camera and press any button). The beams should appear white in the LCD screen.

If your camera does not have an LCD screen, take a picture of the remote control while pressing one of its buttons. In this photo you should see the beam, as illustrated:

Otherwise, it means that your camera has the IR blocking filter. Probably it can be removed, but I would not suggest you do that, because it may void your warranty, or you may never manage to put the camera together and functioning again.

By monty with No comments