Windows XP Tweaks

How to decrease scandisk delay time ?
Sick of waiting for disk check after a sudden shut down
of windows.
Change the scan-disk delay time-out by using this method :

Click start, type in "cmd" and click ok.
Type CHKNTFS/T:3
This will reduce the time-out to 3 seconds.
You can change the value as desired.

Windows XP Faster Start-up

Click Start.
Click Run.
Type "msconfig" and press enter key.
On the Startup tab click Disable All and on the Services tab check the Hide All Microsoft Service box and then click Disable All. Click Restart and Windows XP will restart with only the system services and applications running resulting in a vey fast startup.

How to change first desktop icon ?

Open your registry editor and create the key below.
Create a new DWORD value, called "SortOrderIndex" and set it according to the value data below.

System Key
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}]
Value Name
SortOrderIndex
Data Type
REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data
(0x48 = My Documents, 0x54 = My Computer)
Exit registry editor, restart Windows.

Change Start Menu Speed

Open registry Editor
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Contro Panel\desktop
Look for "MenuShowDelay".
Change the Delay value default 400 as you like.
The value is delay in milliseconds.
Lesser is the value faster is the start menu display.
Exit and restart windows.

Yahoo Messenger ! Registry Tweaks

FED up with those banners at the bottom of Yahoo Messenger 7.5 and 8 ?
Here is a tweak how to get rid of it. What's this an advertising tool or instant messenger ?
Fire up Notepad and paste following lines there:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\yahoo\pager\YUrl]
"First Login Beacon"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Tutorials"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Messenger Help"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Voice General Help"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Chat Adurl"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Calendar Alert Ad URL"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Change Room Banner"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Conf Adurl"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Mail Alert Ad URL"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"News Alert Ad URL"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Personals Alert Ad URL"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Stock Alert Ad URL"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Webcam Upload Ad"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Webcam Viewer Ad"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Webcam Viewer Ad Big"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Webcam Viewer Ad Medium"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Chat Transition Ad"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"
"Messenger Ad"="http://www.yahoo-sucks-a-lot.com"

Now save the file as you wish and rename it "ymnoads.reg". Then double click it to import and answer YES on the popup window that appear. Exit Yahoo Messenger Completely, not just sign off and start it again and watch: All Banners are Gone !

10 Techs for 2007

Body Area Network
Picture this: The cellphone in your pocket sends a tiny electrical current—a fraction of an amp—along your skin, so your car door springs open at your touch and your PC logs in when you grab the mouse. That’s what German startup ImCoSys says its new smartphone will be capable of, thanks to body area network (BAN) technology. Of course, proving those claims would require partner companies to build BAN-compatible devices, and no such deals have been announced since the phone was released last summer.
SHORT-TERM IMPACT: LOWUsing your body as a secure network is smarter than sticking finger- print scanners everywhere, but there’s no guarantee that BAN products will ever materialize.

Passport Hacking
Starting this year, all new U.S. passports will include a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip that stores a digital photo of the owner, as well as biographic data (name, date of birth and so on). The goal is to prevent passport counterfeiting, but hackers already have flexed their muscles: A German security researcher publicly cloned an e-passport at a Las Vegas conference last summer. The State Department promises additional encryption, which hackers will no doubt put to the test.
SHORT-TERM IMPACT: LOWMost people won't need a new passport for years. And even if counterfeiters are able to swipe data to make forged documents, these RFID chips won't hold financial information or Social Security numbers.
>>Read More

Convert your Pictures into Movies with Microsoft Photo Story 3

Did you ever think of turning your Pictures into a Movie. here is Micorosoft Photo Story 3 that can do it for you.

Before you can begin to use Photo Story, you need to get your photographs off your digital camera and onto your hard drive. One of the features I like about Windows XP are the wizards that pop up when you attach additional devices to your computer. There is a really nifty one for importing images from your digital camera to your hard drive. >>Read Here

Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD: Knocking each other out?

Among the differences: the Blu-ray format holds 25 gigabytesto 50 gigabytes of data with additional capacity possible to 200 gigabytes. HD-DVD holds 15 gigabytes to 30 gigabytes with a maximum of 60 gigabytes. The content partnerships favor Blu-ray, which has all of the major movie studios, except for Universal Pictures, backing it along with consumer electronics and computer companies LG Electronics, Panasonic, Samsung, Apple and Dell. HD-DVD has Universal Pictures in its corner along with Intel and Toshiba. A few industry players, such as Hewlett-Packard, Paramount and Warner Bros., have pledged support for both formats.
>>Read More

15 Unusual Ways to Use Google

Admittedly, these aren't exactly new tips, and Google die-hards might already know most of them. But I must admit I was surprised by a few (Google can provide mathematical constants? Who knew?), so you might be, too. When you're done, check out the site's equally useful section on smarter searches.

I'll bet there's a few items on this list that will surprise you too!

Google Is a Calculator
Google Knows Mathematical Constants
Google Converts Units of Measure
Google Is a Dictionary
Google Is a Glossary
Google Lists All the Facts
Google Displays Weather Reports
Google Knows Current Airport Conditions
Google Tracks Flight Status
Google Tracks Packages
Google Is a Giant Phone Directory
Google Knows Area Codes
Google Has Movie Information
Google Loves Music
Google Knows the Answer to the Ultimate Question

Project Management

I just came across this post by Keith Robinson giving some excellent advice for project management:

Look at what you need to do. Break it down. As a project manager you’re probably not going to have to do all the work yourself. You just need to make sure that it gets done, is done right, is done on time, etc. What are the tools you need to do that? A proper plan, good people, clear expectations, good communication, a timeframe, deadlines, a budget, etc. If you really take the time to look at it all, you’ll likely see that with a little thought it’s pretty manageable. Whatever you do, don’t go making a mountain out of a mole hill.

I think one of the biggest problems with many project managers is that they over complicate things or they force you into an overly ridged or complicated process. This makes everyone’s job harder. The idea is to work on the project, not for the project.

Some very good advice! Overdefining tasks can kill a project or make the effort much less enjoyable and less efficient than it needs to be. Part of being a good project manager entails giving people freedom, responsibility, accountability, and clear goals. One of the first rules is that something, somewhere will go wrong. Uncertainty is certain and setbacks are incorporated into any good plan. In a sense, absent a market-mechanism, the project manager tries to lower transaction costs of accomplishing a project and getting it out the door. A good project manager is part coach, coordinator, taskmaster, and peacemaker. Good communication is key.

Robinson sums it up in a nutshell:
If I were to boil it down to some quick and easy tips, I’d go with:

Don’t make it harder than it is
Kick off strong and with clear documentation
Stick to the high-level
Always make sure expectations are set and understood
Trust people to do their jobs
Be a great communicator at all times
Have a solid yet flexible process
Use tools that work for you, not the other way around
That’s pretty much it.

That is pretty much it. Pay special attention to the first point. Missing it can kill the rest. This is some great advice for coordinating people to work in just about any type of endeavor -- in a firm, a non-profit, a church, etc. I often think there is much here that would be usefully applied to what we do in the academy. I can dream, can't I?

If you have any involvement with working with people or leading a group, read the whole post. It won't take long and it is full of good thoughts and great advice.

(HT Gina Trapani)

Say NO to Wrinkles

When a person is young, he or she doesn't have wrinkles because the skin does a great job of stretching and holding in moisture. The dermis has an elastic quality thanks to fibers called elastin that keep the skin looking and feeling young. A protein in the dermis called collagen (say: ka-luh-jun) also plays a part in preventing wrinkles.

However, over time, the dermis loses both collagen and elastin, so skin gets thinner and has trouble getting enough moisture to the epidermis. The fat in the subcutaneous layer that gives skin a plump appearance also begins to disappear, the epidermis starts to sag, and wrinkles form.

There's not a magic age (like 40) when everyone suddenly gets wrinkles. Some people in their 20s have little wrinkles around their eyes (called "crow's feet") from squinting or spending too much time in the sun.

Other people may be in their 50s or 60s before you can even see a wrinkle. This is usually because they have taken good care of their skin over the years and may have more sebum (say: see-bum), the skin's natural oil. They may also have "good genes" - which means their family members don't have many wrinkles. Eventually, however, everyone will have at least a few wrinkles. It's a natural part of the aging process.

Here are some things people can do to prevent getting many wrinkles at an early age:

Avoid spending too much time in the direct sun, especially during the hours when the sun's rays are harshest (between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM). Ultraviolet (UV) rays cause many wrinkles. Sunblock helps, but it doesn't block out all the damaging UV rays that cause wrinkles to the skin. Still, if you are outside a lot, be sure to wear a sunblock with sun protection factor (SPF) 15 or higher and reapply often (every 2 to 3 hours). Always reapply after swimming or playing sports that make you sweaty!
Don't go to the tanning salon. The UV light from tanning booths is just as damaging as the sun's - and sometimes worse.
Don't smoke! Smoking robs your skin of precious moisture and causes premature (early) wrinkles. (Did you ever notice that most heavy smokers have wrinkles around their mouths?)
Drink water.
Moisturize dry skin, especially during months when the air is drier.

GPS-Endowed pigeons enlist to you like Bloggers pollute

If the pigeons wrote their own ones blogs, could speak about where to notice the bread crumb or to find the points roosting main.
Hour, for means of fagotti high technology many small, the pigeons really have become bloggers-but they are messages of shipment approximately the smog of California.
In a plan known like PigeonBlog, the sensors in the fagotti collect the data on toxic gases, which the carbon monoxide and dioxide of nitrogen, poich� the birds traversano through skies of the city.
The information then are transmitted of new to a calculating center them, that it automatically sendes a program of the concentration of the polluting substances on the Internet.
Avian Reporters
Beatriz da Costa, a university professor of the limbs, the calculation and engineering to the university of California, Irvine, dreammed on the idea.
One of the inspirations for the plan was muovendo towards California and "seeing the smog in L.A., "it has said. "It is enough defective outside here."
"Around at the same time camera around to the relative neck has worked through one photo of one hundred years of a pigeon with one.
"The pigeons were annull one of ours first� arrange of delivery, "Coast of from saying.
It has decided to modernize this idea for ventunesimo the century and "to use the pigeons as journalists in order to signal on a situation put into effect them."

Unbeliveable Inventions

The Mouth Cage is designed to allow you to breath and speak but not eat due to the food barrier that's mounted on your face. Just in case you are temped by that perfect pie that's calling out to you, the Mouth Cage,....>> Read More

Weird Truck Accidents

Find out more wired truck accidents, >>See More