*The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments

**Editor's Pick * *

The guys from EepyBird are back, with 251 bottles of Diet Coke and over 1,500 Mentos mints. See it to belive it.

In another experiment, Experiment #137, they did a mint-powered version of the Bellagio fountains. This time, it's one giant Coke & Mentos chain reaction that has to be seen to be believed.

Other experiments:

Diet Coke & Mentos

One wonderful world, Diet Coke & Mentos

Yet another experiment

And what happens when You have it, Watch Out Yourself

Avoiding the Heartbreak of Notebook Hard Drive Failure

Your notebook's hard disk drive will fail some time and unfortunately, there's nothing you can do about it. Here's an article that will tell you what you, hard disk designers and operating system architects can do to lessen the impact of drive failure.

"Most notebook drive failures fit into two categories: Heat and physical failure. First, heat is unavoidable, it is not possible to mount three 120 mm fans on a notebook and still have it be a notebook. Second, notebook drives are not designed for 24x7 operation, it's more like eights hours a day (8x7) typically."

>> Read More

How Vigra Spam Works

There's no escaping spam these days. Even with the best Bayesian filters, blacklists and other filtering techniques, most of us are still plagued with an endless stream of invitations for all sorts of weird and wonderful products and services. One of the most common forms is advertising for pharmacological products - and perhaps the most notorious form is for the 'men's health' variety- notably Sildenafil citrate, more commonly known as Viagra. But how do spammers make their money?

In the US, Viagra is available via prescription only, and will cost around $10 per pill. Pfizer still control the production and distribution of Viagra in the US, so in essence they can control this price to maximise profit and to recoup the cost of development. >> More

How to Crash Internet Explorer

Ever wish you could make your friends and family switch away from Internet Explorer? Perhaps the ability to make it spontaneously crash (and I mean totally crash) just by sending them a link might sway them...

While working with both JavaScript and Internet explorer, and a while back (probably about a year ago now) I was trying to debug a script to make it work in both Firefox and Internet Explorer.
As part of the diagnostics, I wrote a script to iterate through objects and print their properties. As it happens, I tried this on the 'document.write' method, used to output text to the document. I forget the exact reason, but I do remember the outcome.
Firefox handles the code perfectly - but Internet Explorer, on the other hand, throws an exception and unceremoniously quits. Considering the script in question is one line long, or 61 bytes (about 0.06Kb), and that it can be embedded into any webpage, it's rather worrying.

I was surprised to see that, even a year later, the problem persists - so I figured I'd share this little code snippet.
(script) for (x in document.write) { document.write(x);}(slashscript)
**Make sure that you put in proper opening tags of javascript

That's it. For your entertainment, you can find the code here, ready to run.
Be warned, if you are running Internet Explorer, your browser will most likely crash, taking all your currently open windows with it, and possibly rendering your system unstable.

I'd advise you to save your work.
If you're using Firefox (or anything other than IE), have no fear- you won't be affected. If your browser crashes with just 61 bytes of code, however - perhaps it's time to switch?

The myth of maximum megapixels

November 17, 2006 (Computerworld) -- Camera vendors and consumer electronics retailers sell digital cameras as if the pixel count -- the number of pixels a camera's electronics can capture -- is the most important measure of quality.

Ten years ago, consumer-level digital cameras weren't capable of taking good pictures. The optics were lousy, the electronics were unsophisticated, and the settings were relatively limited. Buying a better camera back then meant spending big bucks for a 2-megapixel model rather than, say, a 1.3-megapixel one.

In an effort to convince you that your camera is obsolete and you need to buy a new one, camera vendors keep harping on the more-megapixels-are-better myth.

Megapixels are expensive. Assuming you have a set budget for buying a new camera, the quality of pictures generally will be better if you spend less ...

Megapixels are slow. Higher pixel counts means more data flying around in your camera's electronics. It takes longer to move more data than it does to move less....

Megapixels are big. Higher pixel counts can generate JPEG images that are several megabytes in size. In addition to slowing things down, these larger files will eat up on-camera storage space quickly. The larger files can also eat up hard disk space on your PC over time... >> More

USB Drive Splash Screen

You have USb drive and you want to have a splash screen whenever you plug it in. Simply download this nifty program, learn how to use it, and then get out of there.

To use this program, simply download AutoSplash.zip. This has all of the files that you need to run immediately on your USB drive.

Extract these files from AutoSplash.zip and copy them to the root of your USB drive:

autorun.inf
autosplash.exe
autosplash.ini
SplashImage.jpg

The Zip also contains autosplash.au3 which is the source code for AutoSplash. It is not needed to run correctly and is only required if you want to modify the program yourself.
You can now unplug your USB drive and plug it back into the computer. You will be prompted with something similar to this: When you clcik OK you see the splash Screen

If you need the customization code go Here or post in comments

How to Write a White Paper – A White Paper on White Papers

The term white paper is an offshoot of the term white book, which is an official publication of a national government. A famous white paper example is the Winston Churchill White Paper of 1922, which addressed political conflict in Palestine.

A white paper typically argues a specific position or solution to a problem. Although white papers take their roots in governmental policy, they have become a common tool used to introduce technology innovations and products. A typical search engine query on "white paper" will return millions of results, with many focused on technology-related issues.White papers are powerful marketing tools used to help key decision-makers and influencers justify implementing solutions. For some examples of white papers used in the technology marketplace..

>> ReadMore

Click here to see some examples of whitepapers

Japanese Women 'Suffering' from Constant Orgasms

Deadly 'iku iku byo' reaches a climax:
Growing numbers of Japanese women are afflicted with an illness that gives them orgasms virtually 24 hours a day. And with suggestions that it could be deadly, the women hardly know whether they're coming or going, according to Shukan Post (11/24).

"If a guy simply taps me on the shoulder, I just swoon. Even when I go to the toilet, my body reacts. I'm a little bit scared of myself," one woman sufferer tells Shukan Post.

>> More

Hard drive recovery utilities: when you can't afford to lose that data

Just imagine this: you've been working on that important paper for the past 2 weeks, and you are just about to finish it. The deadline is in a few days. You save your document, go for a coffee and when you get back, your screen is black. Your computer rebooted itself automatically and is now stuck in the bootup process with a message similar to this: No boot device, please insert a bootable media. You try to restart your computer a few times, but it does not fix your problem. At this point, it's important do stay calm, don't PANIC! There may hope yet!

First, you'll have to make sure that your problem isn't related to something else then the hard drive. The failure of your hard disk controller may also be causing this. You could always try to switch your hard drive from IDE1 to IDE2 and see if it fixes your problem. If it's not, remove the hard drive from your system, and bring it with you to a friend's house. If it still doesn't work over there, then you know what the problem is.

The only solution to your problem now is to use a file recovery software, like PC Inspector File recovery. This application is completely free, and it works beautifully. It helped me once or twice in the past few years. Don't make yourself any illusion, it's not perfect, and doesn't work all the time (Like any other hard drive recovery utility). Sometimes, data cannot be recovered out of a broken hard drive, unless you are ready to take your disk to a specialized recovery shop and pay 1000's of dollars to have your data recovered.

While being at your friend's house, install your HD as a secondary device and start the computer. Be sure that the drive is seen in the startup process, because PCinspector will not work if you are having mechanical problems with the disk drive or If it is no longer recognized by the BIOS. Head over to pcinspector.de and download the utility. The software supports the most popular file systems on the market: FAT 12, 16, 32 and NTFS. To be able to use PC INSPECTOR File Recovery you will need a working Windows System. Never install it on the drive from which you intend to recover data! The software must be installed and run on a second, independent drive. When you are done, the utility is very easy to use. Just let the application extensive HTML tutorial guide you through all the steps. I hope this little hard drive recovery how-to could help you. Hopefully, the application will let you recover your data.

If after trying this, you still are unable to recover your data, you can always ask experts to do the job for you. The folks at the Hard Drive Recovery Group can probably help you get your data back, no matter how damaged your drive is. Here's the specific page on their site concerning hard drive data recovery solutions. Check them out.

Here are 2 great articles about hard drive recovery. Read them!
Beginners Guides: Hard Drive Data Recovery
Data Recovery Myths

Edit: I read about the Knoppix Linux distribution CD. This bootable CD has the ability to mount and read FAT, FAT32 and NTFS partitions, even damaged ones. So after your HD crashed, you can always use this to recover your data and back it up on a USB key or second HD.
Knoppix can be downloaded via This location.
This site has some VERY complete instructions about how to use Knoppix to recover your lost data, so I won't have to write about it.

Some people seem to think that if your hard drive has some mechanical problems, you can try putting it in the freezer for a few hours. Check out the discussion here, I'd like to know what you guys think about this. There are already ALOT of comments over there, so if you guys are curious about this solution, check it out!

Forgot your Windows password? No problems : Password resetting and recovering techniques

Lot of people think that after having lost their Windows admin password, they absolutely have to reinstall their OS. Let me tell you something: They are wrong! There are a couple of free utilities on the internet that let you get back in your system without a sweat (or almost). Some risks are associated with the procedure, but who cares? You do have to get back in right?

- After trying a couple utilities, my personal favorite is the Offline NT password & Registry editor. This utility is used to reset the password of any user that has a valid and local account on any NT based system: NT4, 2000, XP and 2003. If you need to reset a password stored in active directory, stop right here, this editor will not allow you to do it.

- Follow this marvelous guide instead (Page won't load in IE, the author doesn't seem to like Internet explorer). You could also try to unravel the password using a brute-force hacking technique, but it could take a while.

- A fully functional automatic bootdisk creator can be downloaded via the author's website (on the bottom of the page). The created disk has everything you need to start working on your inaccessible system. "The bootdisk supports IDE, most SATA controller and also some SCSI controllers. You can also access the editor via the Ultimate Boot CD. UBCD is a very good product that gives you access to a lot of essential freeware tools to help you diagnostic various computer problems.

How does it work? Just follow the instructions provided by the author. They are pretty straightforward, with minimal interaction required by the user, so most default choices will get you through.

- If you want to try your luck with something else, you may want to check Austrumi out. Austrumi is a live Linux distribution CD that allows you, amongst other things, to reset your password the same way the Offline NT password & Registry editor does. Just create a bootable CD with the provided ISO, and boot on it. When you get at the prompt, type boot: nt_pass. This will start the utility and display a menu that let you modify any user's password on the current system. NT_pass is only included in version 0.9.2, so be sure to get this distribution if you want to use this feature.

A Booming India, Short on Malls

India may be an emerging world leader in high-tech innovation, but you wouldn't know that while shopping for household items in New Delhi. My wife and kids land here in a week, and that has prompted me to try and make things look as homey as possible in our rented house. But as a newcomer to this country, I've discovered that filling the cupboards with groceries and household basics is not as simple as heading to the mall or the supermarket.

Supermarkets, in fact, are still a rarity in India. About 97% of the estimated $200 billion Indians spend shopping every year goes to 12 million mom-and-pop stores around the country. Some of these shops cram a surprising array of foods into their limited shelf space, and a small but growing number have imported food — taco shells, olives, cheeses. But very few of them have aisles down which you can push a shopping cart, and almost none of them are air conditioned or use electronic checkouts.

>> Read More

Secret of Firefox Success

TechNewsWorld has an article today explaining some of the factors that recently helped Mozilla Firefox gain ground on IE.

"The browser was designed to be easily understood by the average online user, but Ross admits the average user might not realize the software exists or even what the term "browser" means. So Mozilla is working to spread the word through a grass-roots push, encouraging users to "tell their dentist, tell their family members, tell people they wouldn't normally tell about this product."

The article ends with a very interesting bit from Blake Ross, Firefox's co-creator, about a new project that his team should soon start working upon.

"If Firefox is a response to Internet Explorer, then what we're doing now is a response to Windows.A response to Windows? My my, isn't this interesting? Anyone here knows more about this project? As always, the comment section is open." >> Read more

Matters of HEART

It may be America's No. 1 killer, but people aren't scared enough of heart disease, says a top U.S. research cardiologist.

"We've done a good job of advertising to people that we're doing better with heart disease, so people tend to sort of feel good about it," said Dr. Robert Califf, vice chancellor for clinical research at Duke University Medical Center. "We have bypass surgery and stents and drugs that work; the [mortality] rates are declining."
Read the full article

India(Nodia) Kidnapping :Two held in Anant Gupta kidnapping case

Noida: Two people have been arrested in the kidnapping case of Anant Gupta, the son of Adobe CEO Naresh Gupta, from Noida.

Earlier today, the three-year-old boy was rescued and reunited with his parents.

According to the police, he was rescued around 12:15 pm (IST) from the Noida-Bulandshahr border.

A cheerful and smiling Anant waved to reporters from his Noida residence.

He was kidnapped on Monday morning when he was being walked to his school bus by the family's domestic help.

Two armed men on a motorcycle had snatched him from Noida's posh Sector 15 A neighbourhood.

Security concerns The Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police and the Noida cops were investigating several leads, including a one-time frequent visitor to the Gupta household.

Gupta has denied the family paid a ransom. But he maintained an amount of

Rs. 60 lakh had been demanded and that the family had received threats. Meanwhile, the doctors examining Anant have said there were no indications that the boy had been drugged during the period when he was with the kidnappers.

"The child is behaving and talking normally. His activity is normal," said Dr Kuldeep Singh. And the Principal of Anant's school, Madhu Chandra, said all the students and teachers had been praying for his safe return and were now jubilant that he was back home.

"The entire colony was supportive and praying hard for his safe return. Their prayers have been answered finally. Only a mother knows what it feels like when her child returns," she said.The latest kidnapping case has been a wake up call on security in the National Capital Region (NCR).

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Bush: Vietnam has lessons for Iraq

President Bush, in Vietnam, said today that the United States' unsuccessful war there offered lessons for the American-led struggle in Iraq. "We'll succeed unless we quit," Bush said shortly after arriving in the one-time war capital, Hanoi. "We tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take a while."
FULL STORY

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Open Source Web Based VPN Software

About a year ago, I was introduced to SSL VPN systems. They are a great bit of technology because they incorporate high levels of encryption (which is usually really hard for end users to use) and web technology, specifically web browsers (which most users are very familiar with and know how to use). The down side was that this technology has a tendency to be a bit pricey.
In steps 3SP, a company that provides an SSL VPN product in two flavors, Enterprise for large corporations that need support and Community for those who can support and manage the product themselves. The other advantage of SSL-Explorer: Community Edition is that is is also open source. So you can freely install and modify to your heart’s content.
Using SSL-Explorer is really quite simple. All you need to do is point your web browser to the SSL Explorer server and log it. From there, you can access any of the services that have been set up for you which reside inside the network.
Check out these Flash demos:
Installation
Remote Administration
Web Forwarding (Reverse Proxy)
Web Forwarding (Tunneled Proxy)
Web Forwarding (Replacement Proxy)
Network Places
The other nice thing about SSL-Explorer is that it runs on both Windows and Linux. You do not have to worry about getting a new OS to support the program.
A new version of SSL-Explorer has just been released and you can read more about it on freshmeat.
Leave your Comments

Alien Rain: 'our alien origins'

Scientists believe that the red rain that had fallen in Southern India in 2001 was actually teaming with alien bacteria which could survived the extreme conditions of outer-space. This has fueled debate that the theory of 'Panspermia' is actually possible.

"..recent work of Dr Louis which shows that the red rain can replicate at 300C, an essential attribute of a space micro-organism that might have to endure extreme temperatures.Bacteria might survive the journey through spaceAll this has convinced Professor Wickramasinghe that the red rain is a form of alien life."

Now this can spark many other debates as well. This could support a Darwinian philosophy and blow the "Earth Created In 6 Days" philosophy out of the water.The question is: Are the people of Earth ready for this kind of discovery amidst all of the world's religious unrest and political prejudice?I believe that the scientific community is dying to have these questions answered. Why else would NASA and some of the finest minds in the world be spending millions, and risking their professional reputations in sending a submarine to one of Jupiter's moons as part of an effort to provide those answers?Science is catching up people; it's just a matter of time.Whether you agree with this or not, the notion is intriguing!
>>Read the article.

If you enjoyed, please post your comments

Wednesday 15th November was Microsoft's Patch Day

Yep, it's that time of the month again folks. Microsoft has just released six new security bulletins yesterday. They have also updated their Malicious Software Removal Tool.
Here are the details:

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-066
Vulnerabilities in Client Service for NetWare Could Allow Remote Code Execution (923980) Severity: Important

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-067
Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer (922760)
Severity: Critical

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-068
Vulnerability in Microsoft Agent Could Allow Remote Code Execution (920213)
Severity: Critical

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-069
Vulnerabilities in Macromedia Flash Player from Adobe Could Allow Remote Code Execution (923789)
Severity: Critical

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-070
Vulnerability in Workstation Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (924270)
Severity: CriticalMicrosoft Security Bulletin MS06-071
Vulnerability in Microsoft XML Core Services Could Allow Remote Code Execution (928088) Severity: Critical

Happy patching everyone!

Kevin Mitnick's Top 10 Security Tips

Wired has a nice piece today from Ex-Hacker Kevin Mitnick giving simple tips that should help you secure your desktop against internet villains. An enlightening read for those of you are still green to the world of Internet security.
Protecting yourself is very challenging in the hostile environment of the internet. Imagine a global environment where an unscrupulous person from the other side of the planet can probe your computer for weaknesses, and exploit them to gain access to your most sensitive secrets.

"Protecting yourself is very challenging in the hostile environment of the internet. Imagine a global environment where an unscrupulous person from the other side of the planet can probe your

computer for weaknesses, and exploit them to gain access to your most sensitive secrets."

>>Read more

Microsoft Windows security for computer illiterates

If you enjoyed this post , don't forget to leave your comments.

Moving your 'IE7 Menu Bar' Back to the Top

Those of you with IE7 are bugged with its menubar asI am. May be guys are "Geeks are Sexy" were even more annoyed because they put together a great tutorial on how to get it back to where it belongs.

The first thing I noticed when I installed IE7 on my Windows box was the very inconvenient location of the address bar. Why the heck is it located above the menu bar? (File, edit, view, etc.) I don't know what the folks at Microsoft thought when they designed IE7 that way, but this must be one of the most idiotic design decision they've ever made (For me at least).

For those who think that the address bar should be back at the bottom of IE7's menu section, do not despair! There is a simple registry tweak that will let you put it back as it was in IE6. All you need to do to set thing right again is add a simple key to your XP registry. Here's how to do it:

(Warning: Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft or WE cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.)

- Close all IE browsers before doing anything
- Start your registry editor [Start -> Run > regedit >OK]. Your see your registry editor.
- On the left hand pane, browse to
"HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ InternetExplorer \ Toolbar \ WebBrowser" and be sure that the WebBrowser key is selected.
- Right-click the right pane of the registry editor;
select New>DWORD Value, and name it "ITBar7Position"
- Double click that new value, and assign it with a decimal value of 1
- Restart IE7

Bingo ! You're done it.

War between Microsoft and Google

See brand new, amazing 3D views that make using maps more exciting than ever. To use 3D maps, just install Virtual Earth 3D (Beta).

Google's New release November 1st, 2006 - Check out the latest version of Google Earth (Release 4 - BETA), Explore, Search and Discover .

How come Google Earth And Microsoft Virtual Earth is released almost at the same peroid. Is Microsoft trying to compete with Google?

Hello ! My name is Vista

For you DCoTers who are still trying to get a handle on what exactly Vista is all about (count me in that group), Blogcritics has a good article called Vista - What You Need To Know.
With four versions (or five, depending on where you live… or six, depending on where you work), it can be pretty difficult to know exactly what to purchase and how to even go about making that decision. Ashleigh Charlesworth helps with a very high level overview of what Vista is and some of the different versions available.
Microsoft also has a basic comparison of the four main versions of Vista.
Here are some direct links to each of the versions on Microsoft’s website:
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Enterprise
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows Vista Starter
Now, what about upgrading? It appears that depending on where you are coming from and what you are going to, you may need to reinstall completely but there are some options that do have an upgrade path (only about 1/3).
There is a lot of good information out there about Vista. Now is the time to start researching.
Source : Dialycuoftech

'Oceans' by Rob Dickinson. Entire Music Video Shot on a Nokia N93

Finally a decent video producer. Old CW videos are heinous. This song would make a good movie song. Quick, someone at Paramount get off your lazy ass! As the video shows, the songs got a great depth of imagery.Proof that good direction is a hundred times more important than high-end equipment in communicating a story effectively. Entire Music Video Shot on a Nokia N93
>>See it here

Gears of War set to move 1 million unit

Microsoft expects Gears of War to move more than 1 million units by the end of Christmas, making it one of the fastest selling Xbox 360 titles of all time. Enjoy that achievement before Halo 3 comes out since that release has a good potential to set some records as well. I just posted my Gears review and I have to say that the title moving 1 million units is in no way surprising. Microsoft is counting on the usual holiday season software sales spike to help them reach this projected target. Hit the jump for the full press release…

http://www.younewb.com/index.php/2006/11/16/gears-of-war-set-to-move-1-million-units/

Superman Returns: Daily Planet Destruction

Superman Returns onto DVD on Nov.28th from Warner Bros. Home Video

Also Superman Returns Behind the Scene brought to you by Warner Bros. Home Video on 28th of November.