Paypal is the most widely used payment system on the Internet. Unfortunately Paypal does not support Pakistan but now it is possible to accept paypal payments via third party payment processors. This means that talented Pakistani freelancers are no longer restricted in working online because of the unavailability of Paypal. There are two payment processors that allow you to accept paypal in exchange for goods and services:
2co: 2checkout.com is a long standing and respectable payment processor known mostly for its credit card payment system. Lots of websites on the Internet use it including some Pakistani sites. Recently 2co introduced a new feature whereby merchants could allow their customers to pay via paypal. 2co inturn pays merchants periodically by check or wire transfer.
The downside to using 2co is that there is a sign up fee of $50. 2co requires that you have a website detailing your products and services and that it passes a review by their risk assesment department. This makes it difficult for new freelancers to get started with this payment processor.
The other problem is that 2co is limited to just one website. IF you want to use it on multiple sites you have to pay an additional fee.
Plimus: A lesser know payment processor is plimus. It has no sign up fee and allows you to accept paypal payments. Plimus promises to pay merchants via check or bank transfer after deducting its commission. It is also not limited to just one website like 2co.
Unfortunately plimus is not as well known as 2co so buyers may hesitate in paying you through it.
Both 2co and plimus charge a commission on each transaction conducted through them. Be sure to go through their fee schedules before you use their services. I have yet to use either payment processor and I do not speak from experience. Be sure to do your own research before using either company.
by: Burk Pendergrass
The safest most secure app for browsing the internet currently available just got better and has more improvements on the way. Are you ready for the latest Mozilla release? Firefox 3 Beta 4 is available for download, but before you go running off like some half cocked Microsoft groupie notice the "beta" tag.
Hello!! The internet is a dangerous place. The Remote Helpdesk 1 Team continues to be amused (we can no longer say amazed) at people who would not dare to venture into certain parts of a city but who seemingly rush into the internet's dark corners and dimly lighted streets ill prepared.
Before you sail into a storm baton down the hatches, and before you cruise into hacker, virus, trojan, and criminally infested areas of the world wide web at least darken the windows and arm yourself. Not to take appropriate precautions will assure your computer a visit to the infectious disease controls center if not the hard drive morgue.
Firefox developers have thus far proven themselves to the best at incorporating necessary safety features into their browser while preserving user options and cruise speeds. Online PC Repair folks feel they owe a lot of their success to getting their loyal users involved in the development and testing process. These folks, like The Tennessee Mountain Man, have helped keep the programs on track and the applications minimal. For instance, if a client wants twenty-five cents - give him a quarter like Mozilla tends to do rather that twenty-five pennies as Microsoft is famous for.
It takes a lot less resources to process one coin than it does to count twenty-five. Mozilla recognizing this has given the new "beta" release a lot of new features and improved compatibility while freeing up resources. The end result being a more nimble and faster overall browsing experience. At the same time they have enhanced Firefox's security.
Released to the public via the Mozilla website Monday, 10 March 2008, Firefox 3 Beta 4 is in the beta stage of any software's life cycle. Firefox 3 Beta 4 loudly proclaims that it is "for testing purposes only" therefore it is not for everyone. It you are a newbie or maybe even an intermediate internet user, the suggestion of the Computer Man would be that you use Firefox 2.0.0.12, the latest most stable full release until Firefox 3 is out of beta.
If you just can't wait for a better browsing experience Mozilla reports "the new release includes more than 900 enhancements from beta 3, including drastic improvements to performance and memory usage, as well as fixes for stability, platform enhancements and user interface".
But that is not the half of it... not by a long shot. "Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 31 months. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 12,000 updates including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers improvements.", according to Mozilla.
Enhancements like these reported on the Mozilla website:
"More Secure
* One-click site info: Click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company you're connected to. (Try it here!)
* Malware Protection: malware protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. (Try it here!)
* New Web Forgery Protection page: the content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown. (Try it here!)
* New SSL error pages: clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate. (Try it here!)
* Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and will disable older, insecure versions.
* Secure add-on updates: to improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled.
* Anti-virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.
* Vista Parental Controls: Firefox now respects the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads.
* Effective top-level domain (eTLD) service better restricts cookies and other restricted content to a single domain.
* Better protection against cross-site JSON data leaks.
Easier to Use
* Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login.
* Simplified add-on installation: the add-ons whitelist has been removed making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and you can see and search on the name of the website where a file came from. Your active downloads and time remaining are always shown in the status bar as your files download.
* Resumable downloading: users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images, or optionally only the text size. Your settings will be remembered whenever you return to the site.
* Podcasts and Videocasts can be associated with your media playback tools.
* Tab scrolling and quickmenu: tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu.
* Save what you were doing: Firefox will prompt users to save tabs on exit.
* Optimized Open in Tabs behavior: opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs rather than overwriting.
* Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item.
* Text selection improvements: multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; double-click drag selects in "word-by-word" mode; triple-clicking selects a paragraph.
* Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
* Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Integration with Vista: Firefox now has Vista-specific icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Integration with the Mac: the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and spell-checker in web forms and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Integration with Linux: Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.
More Personal
* Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them.
* Tags: associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Location bar & auto-complete: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you're looking for. Results are returned according to their frecency (a combination of frequency and recency of visits to that page) ensuring that you're seeing the most relevant matches. An adaptive learning algorithm further tunes the results to your patterns!
* Smart Bookmarks Folder: quickly access your recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as your more frequently visited pages with the new smart bookmarks folder on your bookmark toolbar.
* Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches.
* Web-based protocol handlers: web applications, such as your favorite webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (Web applications will have to first enable this by registering as handlers with Firefox).
* Download & Install Add-ons: the Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of Add-ons available from our community add-ons website. When you first open the Add-ons Manager, a list of recommended Add-ons is shown.
* Easy to use Download Actions: a new Applications preferences pane provides a better UI for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.
Improved Platform for Developers
* New graphics and font handling: new graphics and text rendering architectures in Gecko 1.9 provides rendering improvements in CSS, SVG as well as improved display of fonts with ligatures and complex scripts.
* Color management: (set gfx.color_management.enabled on in about:config and restart the browser to enable.) Firefox can now adjust images with embedded color profiles.
* Offline support: enables web applications to provide offline functionality (website authors must add support for offline
browsing to their site for this feature to be available to users).
* A more complete overview of Firefox 3 for developers is available for website and add-on developers.
Improved Performance
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in significant improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3 Beta 4, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Memory usage: Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 Beta 4 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned.
* Reliability: A user's bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes."
Mozilla provides Firefox 3 Beta 4 for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in forty different languages, and reports it can be removed without losing your bookmarks, web browsing history, extensions and other add-ons. Best of all - it is FREE ! Just download, install, and enjoy a whole new faster browsing experience if your computer meets one of the following system requirements.
Windows
Operating Systems
* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows Server 2003
* Windows Vista
Minimum Hardware
* Pentium 233 MHz (Recommended: Pentium 500MHz or greater)
* 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
* 52 MB hard drive space
Mac
Operating Systems
* Mac OS X 10.4 and later
Minimum Hardware
* Macintosh computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
* 128 MB RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater)
* 200 MB hard drive space
Linux
Software Requirements
Please note that Linux distributors may provide packages for your distribution which have different requirements.
* Linux kernel - 2.2.14 or higher with the following libraries or packages:
o glibc 2.3.2 or higher
o XFree86-3.3.6 or higher
o gtk+2.0 or higher
o fontconfig (also known as xft)
o libstdc++5
Minimum Hardware
* Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-III+ 233 MHz CPU (Recommended: 500MHz or greater)
* 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
* 52 MB hard drive space
And, if you still have not tried Mozilla Thunderbird,
get ready to kick Outlook Express to the curb!
There are millions of money making programs available in Internet. Publisher Programs, Affiliate programs and Get Paid to Read programs are popular in our world to earn money by using power of Internet. Generally, publishers participate in different Publisher programs. Some Publisher programs pay members based on the Clicks generated by the each website. Similarly, remaining Publisher programs pay members based on the Pay Per Click and Cost Per Thousand Impressions. Site owners used to increase their ad revenue with different programs. Cost Per Thousand Impression (CPM) programs are best money making programs to maximize site revenue.
There are different Pay Per Thousand Impression programs available in Internet in order to maximize site revenue by converting Site Traffic into revenue. PayPopUp is best CPM program in Internet. PayPopUp rewards best and very high amount for their members. Pop-Up and Pop-Under Advertisements may not suitable for few sites. In other words, some site owners do not want to monetize their websites with Pop-Up and Pop-Under CPM programs due to some problems but there is no alternate method to earn money from Page Impressions. However, a great money making program waits for interesting Internet users to make money online without Pop-Up or Pop-Under Ad problems. This program popularly called as Pay-Ads.
Pay-Ads is a best Cost Per Thousand Impression (CPM) Ad network for interesting site owners to earn money online with CPM rate without Pop-Up technology. This program provides a piece of JavaScript Code at member’s account area. Pay-Ads Ad code immediately responds when Publisher successfully installed their Ad Code in their websites. Presently, Pay-Ads offers only 460X60 px Ad Banner. Pay-Ads displays default Banner in Some countries but the Ad Banner change time to time and place to place. So, Publishers do not worry about ads when Pay-Ads displays their company Ads.
Pay-Ads pays members 3.5$ for Thousand accurate impressions. No other ad network can pay high payment like Pay-Ads. That is the special of this program but members must generate Genuine or Valid Page Impressions from either Blog or website. Presently, Pay-Ads pays members through either e-gold or PayPal. It depends on the publisher convenience. Pay-Ads used to pay their members 6 times in a month means 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th and 30th. The minimum payment of this program is 1$. So, Publisher can easily transfer their earnings within few minutes. That is why Most of publishers used to work with Pay-Ads to make some bucks.
This company welcomes new members to their network from almost all countries but member should have either Valid PayPal or e-gold account in order to receive their payment from Pay-Ads. Pay-Ads used to face some problems from their members. That is why this company updates member’s earnings once per a day means every 24 hours. In other words, members can expect their earnings for every 24 hours in a day. Their network carefully observes each publisher activities with the help of their Ad Network to protect their advertiser’s investment. Referral program is another highlight of their company. Every publisher can receive 10% of commission on referrals for only 1 Level.
Instructions for Members:
* We know that Click Fraud Cheating is very common problem in Publisher program. Similarly, Pay-Ads members have to know few tips to protect their account permanently without any problems. Pay-Ads pays members based on the Impressions generated by the each website. Pay-Ads Ad technology noted each and every thing in their Database with Internet Protocol (I.P) Addresses from different locations. They Ad technology collects publisher location address and Publisher personal computer I.P address. There is no rule to maintain each publisher one computer. They may use different computers but Pay-Ads investigates in other way. Their systems can automatically detect Invalid Impressions from one location with similar I.P Addresses. Members must use this program in proper way. Otherwise, Pay-Ads simply close respective member account without intimation.
* Some publishers maintain more than one account by referring themselves with their personal referral links to increase their income level. This company seriously considers this type of activities of the publishers. Pay-Ads advanced Software technology can easily identify this type of activities. This company only supports Genuine Publishers. Remaining publisher’s accounts automatically deleted. Similarly, this company closes 30 days inactive members. So, publisher must maintain proper relationship with their account to protect their account permanently.
Advantages:
* Member’s benefits are very high when compare to the other Ad units.
* This Ad network rewards 3.5$ for Cost per Thousand Impressions. No other Ad network can 3.5$ for Valid Thousand Impressions.
* Members receive their payment through either PayPal or E-Gold in 6 times in a month. Members can receive 6 times in a month without any problems.
Disadvantages:
* This company does not excuse anyone and simply close Account of Inactive members and Members who try to maintain more than one account or Member who try to cheat Pay-Ads.
* This company offers only 460x60 Banner Ad for their members but this company tries to improve different types of Ad units for their active members.
* Pay-Ads allows members to place Ad Code once per page. This company does not consider Page Impressions if any publisher placed their Ad Code more than 1 time in one page.
Webmasters earn money from different Publisher programs such as Google AdSense, Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN), Bidvertiser, Clicksor, Chitika and etc. Almost all Publisher programs allow members to monetize sites with different money making publisher programs to increase the site revenue. Site owners can not increase their site revenue and sometimes, they may not manage their ad space in websites and blogs. A great money making program waits for interesting Internet users to earn money from websites and Blogs with the help Pop-Up and Pop-Under targeted Advertisements.
PayPopUp is number 1 Pop-Up and Pop-Under Publisher program for interesting publishers by placing a small piece of Ad code. Members can display either Pop Up or Pop Under advertisements in websites. Similarly, site owners can display both advertisements in one site at a time. This program is completely worked on Contextual advertising system. So, Pay Pop Up’s Ad code collects best keywords from websites and displays very relevant target Advertisements. This is really great money making idea suitable for almost all websites and blogs.
All these Pop-Up and Pop-Under Advertisements do not occupy Ad space in any site. So, site owners can easily maximize their Ad revenue with zero px Ad space. That is why most of people use this technique to increase the site revenue. Generally, Publishers monetize their sites with Pay Per Click (PPC) or Cost Per Click (CPC) advertisements. Click Fraud Cheating is very common problem in PPC Publisher programs. However, Pay Pop Up Publisher program is completely Click Fraud Cheating Free program. In other words, publishers do not worry about Click Fraud Cheating problems.
Pay Pop Up is not a Pay Per Click (PPC) program. This program pays members as per CPM scale. CPM is not but Cost per thousand Impressions. PayPopUp gives complete flexibility to earn money just for site visitors. I think this program is very useful for all Publishers. The cost per Thousand Impressions rate changes and it depends on Geo-graphic location. We know that Publisher programs may allow members to place ad code 2-3 times in any website but Pay Pop Up does not allow members to place ad code more than 1 time. So, Site owners have to paste Ad Code once per webpage. Similarly, Ad code may not work properly if any publisher paste more than once.
These programs may generate Invalid page Impressions and Site owner may face problems due to site visitors Invalid Page Impressions similar to the Click Fraud Cheating. PayPopUp Ad network uses very advanced software technology to detect Invalid Page Impressions. This company Ad technology simply filtered Invalid Page Impressions and updated once per day. So, Publishers can expect daily statistics for every 24 hours. Some new publishers worry about their statistics. That is why I mentioned here as per their convenience. PayPopUp does not close any Publisher’s account without strong reason. So, members do not worry about their account and earnings.
PayPopUp Ad Formats:
Presently, PayPopUp provides 4 types of Ad formats for Publishers as per their convenience. These are the List of PayPopUp ad formats are available as stated below.
Pop Under
In Page Banner
Pop In Banner
Interstitial
PayPopUp Ad code may not serve Advertiser’s advertisement in few Browsers but most of Browsers support for their Ad Code. This company works to implement the Ad Code to avoid this problem completely.
Instructions for PayPopUp Members:
PayPopUp provides complete flexibility for their members with strict rules and regulations in order to protect Advertiser’s investment and other terms of use. Don’t misunderstand this company. Every Publisher program strictly follows their rules to give best results for Advertisers and best benefits for their members. So, every publisher has to understand and think logic behind of their rules and regulations.
PayPopUp does not allow members to modify ad code. We know that the size of ads can adjust by changing the height, width, color and etc but most of ad codes may not work properly due to this type of code modification. So, publisher may not expect exact results. Similarly, Publisher program ad technology performance may reduce due to these improper activities. That is why Publisher programs strictly prohibited these activities. Similarly, PayPopUp also seriously considers Ad code modifications. Publisher account may be deactivated by this company. So, do not modify publisher ad code; not only this program. This condition is applicable for all publisher programs. Interesting Internet users can check any publisher program’s terms and conditions in their websites.
PayPopUp does not support few sites. For example: Adult Content sites, Harmful content and etc. However, PayPopUp support carefully studies every site before going to approve any site. Some site owners do not place any improper content initially. Later they may publish but PayPopUp manually check their member’s sites in order to check their member’s activities. Their system can automatically detect these activities. Similarly, some people place ad code in rejected sites. Their advanced Ad technology noted each and every page Impression generated by the each site. Finally, their system automatically alerts their support for Investigation. Finally, PayPopUp holds respective member’s earnings. Sometimes, they may close publisher account due to these improper activities.
There are so many advanced softwares available to create millions of millions websites within few minutes time. Similarly, there are so many advanced softwares available to generate Page Impressions like Page to Read or Paid to Click programs. PayPopUp does not permit members to place their ad code in duplicate content sites or duplicate domains. Similarly, Their Ad technology can easily detect Invalid Impressions generated by either Paid to surf programs or Auto surf softwares. So, this company does not give guarantee for their members who neglect their terms and conditions mentioned in their site. Each publisher must read their terms and conditions before going to place an Ad code of PayPopUp Publisher program.
I once asked a friend of mine what is the best organizer? He said, "Microsoft Outlook, of course". Then he thought a bit and added, "The most popular one, anyway." But popularity is not the key issue for me. And since I have to write down (or keep in mind) a lot in my work, I decided to take it more seriously. I have studied a lot organizers and schedulers. LeaderTask from the Almeza company has turned out to be the most appropriate and convenient one for me. I will not compare it with all organizers, but only with the most popular one – Microsoft Outlook. No doubt Microsoft Outlook is a high-quality software product, but LeaderTask outdoes it in some things. Though Outlook is better in some other things. I will enumerate all these parameters in this article. So...
LeaderTask advantages.
1. Separate object groups.
There are different types of objects defined in LeaderTask. These include: projects, tasks, notes.
Projects in LeaderTask mean those things that have time limits. Something specific results from a project being completed.
A task in LeaderTask is the description of what should be done in order to complete a project (project steps).
Notes are chaotic records that can be assigned to projects and separate tasks (they may also deal with a contact/category/time, etc.). Notes serve as a convenient tool for taking down separate thoughts that can be useful for completing a project or a task.
A project may contain several tasks. For example, the "Writing an article" project may include the following: "Studying materials", "Writing a draft", "Sending it to the editor", "Correcting the article". The result of the project is an article. That is, something large is split into smaller parts, which is very convenient to use.
Besides, every project has the following properties: a name, a group (logical, the one the project belongs to), a contact (the list of project participants), a time period (the time the project will be completed within), notes (comments to the project). You can filter tasks by these properties (single out tasks from the list of tasks). I will dwell on filtering a bit later.
Each task can contain subtasks. For example, the "Studying materials" task may include the following subtasks: "Visit the library", "View information on the website", "View advertising materials". Any task has parameters (tags) that can be also used for filtering. These include: "Projects", "Contacts", "Categories", "Calendar".
Outlook has nothing like this - no different types of objects are defined in it. There are no separate projects, tasks, notes – there are only equal tasks. It means that notes (occasional thoughts) will be in one list, which will make searching for a particular note afterwards more difficult. It is completely unacceptable for a person who values time.
2. Tree-like tasks.
Tasks in LeaderTask are arranged in the form of a tree, which is achieved due to the task hierarchy (splitting tasks into subtasks). It allows you to classify tasks, combine them into one project (or into a task of a higher level). This way you get tasks that are not scatterred, but strictly structured. The tree-like structure allows you to see the heirarchy and understand what tasks belong to what at any time. It reminds the tree of folders and files in the operating system. It is much more convenient to keep tasks this way (since you are quite used to it). Besides, these hierarchies can have as much levels as you need.
The tree-like structure allows you to:
See all tasks at once;
Sort tasks. You can sort tasks by any property (important/unimportant, personal/business, etc.);
Group tasks. You can group tasks by criteria (either by one or by several criteria at once). Criteria include: project, time, category, contact;
Use the "Periodic Task" option allowing you to complete tasks that may occur at certain intervals;
Customize the settings. It is possible to customize the task tree the way that suits you best;
Hide completed tasks. You can show (or hide) completed tasks at any time. Which is also very convenient and allows you not to pay attention to tasks that are already completed.
Tasks are not arranged as a tree in Outlook. It has one level only. All tasks are arranged in one list, there is no embedment, which makes it sometimes difficult to make out what a particular tasks belongs to. It is as if all files on the computer were located in one huge folder. It is very inconvenient.
3. Flexible interface customization.
It is possible to flexibly customize interface in LeaderTask (as in many modern programs). Any user can customize tasks to be displayed in the way he finds convenient. The following items can be used to achieve it.
Floating panels. All panels in LeaderTask are floating – they can be dragged to any part of the main window. The user can set the panel size, set its position and type, specify how many panels should be displayed at a time. Besides, every panel has thee buttons in the right corner of its title bar. They allow you to maximize the panel (inside the main window of the program), activate popup mode for the panel (the panel will slide out when you move the mouse pointer over it), close the panel.
Highlighting. Every user can highlight task tabs in a particular color in order to see better in the task tree. Highligting is a perfect tool for marking the most important tasks, urgent tasks or tasks you must not postpone or forget about. An important task that is not highlighted may get lost among other tasks. LeaderTask allows you to avoid it. It seems as if nothing special, but highlighting in different colors is a very useful tool for planning your tasks right.
Skins. LeaderTask supports all kinds of skins, among which any user will be able to choose the one that suits him best.
Fonts. LeaderTask supports all kinds of fonts. You can use it to highlight various tasks in the list as well.
It is possible to partially customize the interface in Outlook (but it is no so easy to do it). In particular, panels are static in Outlook (they are not floating) and it is also impossible to highlight particular tasks in different colors in Outlook.
4. Structuring tasks.
That's where LeaderTask is completely incomparable - it offers extremely wide features for structuring tasks. First of all, it is structuring tasks by projects and subtasks (what I mentioned above). Besides, it is possible to structure tasks by categories, by deadlines, by priority, by contacts.
The most important thing in LeasderTask is structuring tasks by priority. Priorities are arranged into a library of priorities that you can cusotmize so that it meets your needs. Tasks structured by priorities allow you to single out the most important tasks among all other tasks and complete them first.
Tasks are not structured in Outlook. All tasks are displayed in one list where it is reall difficult to make anything out.
5. Clear view.
One of the main advantages in LeaderTask is a clear view of tasks (particularly on the "Today" panel). Along with the task tree and highlighting, it is achieved by the following:
Tabs. Multiple tasks are grouped with the help of tabs in the "Tasks" panel. Any items in the "Navigator" panels can be used as these tabs. Most often, they are projects. Using tabs is very convenient. For example, there are two projects: "Writing an article" and "Design development". And these projects include a lot of tasks. Not to view tasks from both projects at once, you should click the corresponding project tab and the "Tasks" panel will show tasks of one project only (for example, those from "Writing an article").
Filters. It allows you to view records by certain selected parameters. Parameters (criteria) are set when you create records: task start time, responsible person, physical locations where the task is completed and others. It means that filtering allows you to select records (from different projects) among all created records by certain criteria. This feature seemed the most actual one to me since it offers wide opportunities in selecting what is needed at the moment accoding to some event from the entire list.
There is no clear view in Outlook. And even more – viewing tasks is made as difficult as possible. As I mentioned before, all tasks and notes are displayed in one list. There are no trees, no highlighting, no tabs and only simple filtering (you cannot create custom filters).
6. Differentiated tasks.
LeaderTask allows you to plan your activity assigning tasks to a certain context. Context means circumstances that suit best for completing a task (for example, "in office", "at home", "at a conema" and others). Also, it is possible to single out tasks by parameters and attributes set for them. For example, by projects, by contacts, by priority, by urgency and by others. In other words, LeaderTask considers the same tasks with different attributes as different tasks (which they are).
Tasks are not differentiated in Outlook. All tasks are equal. That's probably the reason why it does not have such useful features as trees, filtering and others...
Microsoft Outlook advantages.
1. Data synchronization.
Microsoft Outlook (to be exact, a lot of add-ins both from Microsoft and from third parties) allows you to synchronize your data on the computer with data on other devices, such as cell phones, pocket PCs, etc.
There is no such data synchronization in LeaderTask. It should be mentioned that LeaderTask is not assigned to any system during its installation – you can store it, for example, on a flash drive and use it on different computers. It is a bit of excuse.
2. Data import and export.
Microsoft Outlook has automatic data impot and export. You can import quite a lot of items: address books, e-mail messages, account settings, etc. You can also export this data into various formats that are most convenient for importing by other programs. Besides, there are special add-ins enhancing the data import and export features.
I could not find data import and export in LeaderTask.
Summary.
These are the main advantages and disadvantages of LeaderTask. Since I plan my time only using the computer and only in LeaderTask, I do not have to import, export and synchronize data. But, of course, it is no excuse for its drawbacks. Probably, they will be fixed soon. And if they do it, LeaderTask will become the best organizer ever. And there is no doubt that they will do it taking into account how thoughful software developers from Almeza are about their software making it comfortable, appealing and functional. Most probably, data import, export and synchronization are only a question of time.
All that may be even implemented already in the current version of the program – it all depends on when you are reading this article...
LeaderTask is a perfect choice for everyone who is looking for an alternative to Outlook!
Download the free trial vesion of the LeaderTask organizer
http://www.leadertask.com/download/leader.exe
LeaderTask organizer homepage
http://www.leadertask.com/
LeaderTask support forum
http://www.todoforum.com/
When it comes to making a living online, the chances have never been brighter! You already see that there are plenty of people who are seeing a great deal of success when it comes to making money online, but what might not be immediately apparent is how you can join them. Search engine marketing, particularly through pay per click services, is becoming quite popular when it comes to earning a living from the comfort of your own home, but remember, you need to be critical of the opportunities that you will find. Take a look below for some tips that will steer you towards the right opportunity, and don't go forward until you can tick every single one off of your list.
Find out how much time you can devote to this opportunity.
The best opportunity for you will be one that will fit into the time that you have slotted for it. It doesn't matter how great an opportunity is if you are constantly trying to get more work, or it constantly expects more from you than you can give.
Think about the salary.
What are your current needs? Do you have a job that you are looking to get rid of, but does it currently pay the bills? Are you unemployed and need a situation fast? There is often a time period when search engine marketing opportunities and pay per click services will need to wait before they pay you. Ask how long it will be before you receive your first pay check and how much they think it will be.
Do you have the capabilities to do the job?
Think about your internet set up at home. Do you have a reliable connection and can you clock time on your own on the computer? Too many people need to fight for a turn to use the computer, and this can be quite detrimental to your plans. Take some time to really sort through your resources and what they will be for the foreseeable future. Think about any disruptions (visits, vacations, the busy time at your other job) and make sure you take them into consideration.
Do your research!
What do you know about the company that is hiring you? Do they have a good reputation online and what do people who have worked for them in the past say? Take some time to find out what people are saying in reviews and on forums about your new company. How much did the other people make, and were they paid in a regular and timely fashion? There are many points to consider when you are starting a new job, and you want to make sure that your newest opportunity is a good one.
By keeping to a checklist, you can make sure that you have criteria for judging the opportunities that you come across. This is a good rubric to use when you are choosing between pay per click opportunities because it gives you a place to start from. Take some time and make sure that this opportunity is the one that helps you succeed!
The purpose of a DNS server is to enable people and applications to lookup records in DNS tables. Most DNS servers are now private, meaning that they are configured to only provide service to the people and organizations who own and maintain them.
A few domain name servers on the Internet provide DNS resolutions for anyone who requests it of them. These are known as "Public DNS Servers."
Most public DNS servers are public on purpose. A few public DNS servers are public only because they have been misconfigured by their system administrators. Those DNS servers tend to eventually be fixed.
Public DNS Servers
ns1.de.opennic.glue (Cologne, DE)
217.115.138.24
ns1.jp.opennic.glue (Tokyo, JP)
219.127.89.34
ns2.jp.opennic.glue (Tokyo, JP)
219.127.89.37
ns1.nz.opennic.glue (Auckland, NZ)
202.89.131.4
ns1.uk.opennic.glue (London, UK)
194.164.6.112
ns1.phx.us.opennic.glue (Phoenix, AZ, US)
63.226.12.96
ns1.sfo.us.opennic.glue (San Francisco, CA, US)
64.151.103.120
ns1.co.us.opennic.glue (Longmont, CO, US)
216.87.84.209
ns1.ca.us.opennic.glue (Los Angeles, CA, US)
67.102.133.222
bigguy.gte.net
206.124.64.1
ns1.granitecanyon.com
205.166.226.38
ns2.granitecanyon.com
69.67.108.10
nl.public.rootfix.net - Nederlands
199.166.29.3
NS1.QUASAR.NET - Orlando, FL, USA
199.166.31.3
SpeakEasy Nameservers
66.93.87.2
216.231.41.2
216.254.95.2
64.81.45.2
64.81.111.2
64.81.127.2
64.81.79.2
64.81.159.2
66.92.64.2
66.92.224.2
66.92.159.2
64.81.79.2
64.81.159.2
64.81.127.2
64.81.45.2
216.27.175.2
66.92.159.2
66.93.87.2
Sprintlink General DNS
204.117.214.10
199.2.252.10
204.97.212.10
Cisco
128.107.241.185
192.135.250.69
ns1.mailworx.net
69.1.200.68
usenet.net.nz
202.49.59.6
zbasel.fortytwo.ch
193.138.215.60
ns.second-ns.de
213.133.105.2
ns2.your-server.de
213.133.106.251
SUPERCHERGED DNS
208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220
When I saw this claim over at E61Life, that changing your DNS server address increases your bandwidth, I wanted to call bullshit because anyone who knows even a little bit about networking will know that changing the DNS address doesn't affect network speed. The resolve time may be decreased yes, but the connection speed should remain constant. I decided to try it out myself. Ran a mobile speed test 6 times, 3 time under my automatic DNS settings, 3 times under this custom address. The phone was kept on my desk and wasn't moved. I want this to be as scientifically accurate as possible.
Test 1: 114 kbit/sec
Test 2: 103 kbit/sec
Test 3: 144 kbit/sec
Average: 120.33 kbit/sec
Now let me change to the "supercharged" DNS server
Test 1: 164 kbit/sec
Test 2: 176 kbit/sec
Test 3: 179 kbit/sec
Average: 173 kbit/sec
OK now something must be happening here, this doesn't make sense networking wise. At this point I go back into my phone and put my DNS records back to automatic. I run 3 more tests.
Test 1: 187 kbit/sec
Test 2: 163 kbit/sec
Test 3: 144 kbit/sec
Average: 164.66 kbit/sec
So it's slower than the "supercharged" DNS server, but faster than the first results … ?
Let me continue the tests on automatic DNS mode
Test 4: 207 kbit/sec
Test 5: 189 kbit/sec
Test 6: 171 kbit/sec
Average: 189 kbit/sec
Now these are the fastest numbers I've gotten yet. My hypothesis has been proven wrong, the network speed hasn't remained constant at all, it has increased. More so it has increased independently to the DNS address used.
I can only come to one conclusion: At the carrier level, bandwidth is allocated to everyone equally. When their systems start seeing that you need more bandwidth they give it to you. They do this in order to maintain QoS (Quality of Service). That or GPRS is too unpredictable to gage network performance.
Do I recommend changing your DNS address? No
Just for shits and giggles I want to see what connecting via WiFi will do to these numbers:
Test 1: 2001 kbit/sec
Test 2: 1677 kbit/sec
Test 3: 1710 kbit/sec
Average: 1796 kbit/sec = <3 WiFi
It's really handy to have access to the Volume Control panel in the event you quickly need to move the volume slider up or down. In its default state, XP ships with almost a clean slate for both the desktop and taskbar. So, if you'd like to place the volume control icon in the taskbar, you're going to need to make a little adjustment.
To place the volume control icon in the taskbar, follow these steps:
Single-click the Start menu.
Single-click Control Panel.
Single-click Sound, Speech, and Audio Devices.
Single-click Sounds and Audio Devices to launch the Sound and Audio Devices properties.
On the Volume tab, locate the text labeled "Device Volume" and place a check mark next to the text labeled "Place volume icon in the taskbar."
Single-click Apply.
You should now have the volume icon in the taskbar. Now all you need to do is double-click this icon to bring up your Volume Control panel.
If for some reason you need to install NetBEUI then follow these instructions.
**Note - You will need the WinXP CD in order to to this!
Support for the NetBIOS Extended User Interface protocols (also called NetBEUI or NBF) in Windows XP has been discontinued. If your configuration requires temporary use of NetBEUI for Windows XP, follow these steps:
To install the NETBEUI protocol:
- Locate the Valueadd/msft/net/netbeui directory on your Windows XP CD.Copy nbf.sys into the %SYSTEMROOT%SYSTEM32DRIVERS directory.
- Copy netnbf.inf into the %SYSTEMROOT%INF directory.
- In Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections and then click Network Connections.
- Right-click the connection you want to configure, and then click Properties.
- On the General tab, click the INSTALL button to add the NetBEUI protocol.
If you want to save your files to your hard drive, so after a format you dont have to download them all again, here's How:
- Logon to Windows Update
- Choose Windows Update Catalogue (left hand pane)
- Choose Find updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems (right hand pane)
- Choose your version and language then Search
- Choose one the following:
- Critical Updates and Service Packs
- Service Packs and Recommended Downloads
- Multi-Language Features (0)
- Once chosen simply click on what you want to download and then back at the top click Review Download Basket
- You are taken to the next page where at the top you can specify where the downloads are to be saved.
- Click Download now. Each patch will make a directory under the root of the folder you saved them to.
Once finished you need to go to where you saved the file (s) to and then simply install all your patches.
Theoretically, you can get rid of it (as well as a few other things). Windows 2000 power users should already be familiar with this tweak.
Fire up the Windows Explorer and navigate your way to the %SYSTEMROOT% \ INF folder. What the heck is that thingy with the percentage signs? It's a variable. For most people, %SYSTEMROOT% is C:\Windows. For others, it may be E:\WinXP. Get it? Okay, on with the hack! In the INF folder, open sysoc.inf (but not before making a BACKUP copy first). Before your eyes glaze over, look for the line containing "msmsgs" in it. Near the end of that particular line, you'll notice that the word "hide" is not so hidden. Go ahead and delete "hide" (so that the flanking commas are left sitting next to one another). Save the file and close it. Now, open the Add and Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. Click the Add / Remove Windows Components icon. You should see "Windows Messenger" in that list. Remove the checkmark from its box, and you should be set. NOTE: there are other hidden system components in that sysoc.inf file, too. Remove "hide" and the subsequent programs at your own risk.
To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, perform the following steps.
Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt.
In Windows XP, click Start, and then click Run.
At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.
Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.
NOTE: Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted prior to executing the convert command. It is also recommended to verify the integrity of the backup before proceeding, as well as to run RDISK and update the emergency repair disk (ERD).
Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.
To copy files and folders to a CD
•Insert a blank, writable CD into the CD recorder.
•Open My Computer.
•Click the files or folders you want to copy to the CD. To select more than one file, hold down the CTRL key while you click the files you want. Then, under File and Folder Tasks, click Copy this file, Copy this folder, or Copy the selected items.
•If the files are located in My Pictures, under Picture Tasks, click Copy to CD or Copy all items to CD, and then skip to step 5.
•In the Copy Items dialog box, click the CD recording drive, and then click Copy.
•In My Computer, double–click the CD recording drive. Windows displays a temporary area where the files are held before they are copied to the CD. Verify that the files and folders that you intend to copy to the CD appear under Files Ready to be Written to the CD.
•Under CD Writing Tasks, click Write these files to CD. Windows displays the CD Writing Wizard. Follow the instructions in the wizard.
Notes:
•Do not copy more files to the CD than it will hold. Standard CDs hold up to 650 megabytes (MB). High–capacity CDs hold up to 850 MB.
•Be sure that you have enough disk space on your hard disk to store the temporary files that are created during the CD writing process. For a standard CD, Windows reserves up to 700 MB of the available free space. For a high–capacity CD, Windows reserves up to 1 gigabyte (GB) of the available free space.
•After you copy files or folders to the CD, it is useful to view the CD to confirm that the files are copied. For more information, click Related Topics.
To stop the CD recorder from automatically ejecting the CD
•Open My Computer.
•Right–click the CD recording drive, and then click Properties.
•On the Recording tab, clear the Automatically eject the CD after writing check box.
Great Digital Media with Windows XP includes everything you need to know to play digital music stored on your PC, on audio CDs, Internet radio stations, and through Web-based streaming audio. But it doesn't end there: With Windows XP, you can almost endlessly configure Microsoft Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP), manage digital music directly from the Windows shell and through MPXP, copy music from audio CDs to your PC, and create your own audio "mix" CDs and data CD backups. And best of all, these capabilities are all built into Windows XP... for free!
Here are some tips for working with digital music and audio in Windows XP.
Copy CD Audio in MP3 format with an MP3 Encoding Add-on Pack
Microsoft Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) can record CD audio in Windows Media Audio (WMA) 8 format natively, but if you want to use the more common MP3 format, you will need one of several MP3 Encoding Add-on Packs, which will be available for download by the time Windows XP is widely released on October 25. The add-on packs will cost less than $10, and will be available from Cyberlink, InterVideo, and Ravisent.
Use transcoding to save space on portable audio devices.
When copying music from an audio CD to your hard drive, you will probably want to use a decent encoding rate (128 Kbps WMA or 160 Kbps MP3 format) to ensure that the resulting files are as close to CD-quality as possible. But such files are pretty large, and if you're going to be copying them to a portable audio device--such as an Iomega HipZip or a Pocket PC--you won't be able to bring very many songs with you on the road. To overcome this problem, Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) supports a feature called transcoding, which will let you downsize files on the file as you copy them to a portable device. So you might transcode 128 Kbps WMA files down to 64 Kbps, for example, to fit twice as many songs in the same amount of space, with only a small loss in sound quality. To configure this feature, open MPXP and navigate to Tools, Options, Devices. Then, choose the appropriate device and click Properties. This dialog will allow you to set a custom quality level for music copied to that device.
Use audio CD artwork in your digital media folders.
One of the coolest new features in Windows XP is its album thumbnail generator, which automatically places the appropriate album cover art on the folder to which you are copying music (WMA 8 format by default). But what about those people that have already copied their CDs to the hard drive using MP3 format? You can download album cover art from sites such as cdnow.com or amguide.com, and then use the new Windows XP folder customize feature to display the proper image for each folder. But this takes time--you have to manually edit the folder properties for every single folder--and you will lose customizations if you have to reinstall the OS. There's an excellent fix, however. When you download the album cover art from the Web, just save the images as folder.jpg each time and place them in the appropriate folder. Then, Windows XP will automatically use that image as the thumbnail for that folder and, best of all, will use that image in Windows Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) if you choose to display album cover art instead of a visualization. And the folder customization is automatic, so it survives an OS reinstallation as well. Your music folders never looked so good! Also, you can save a smaller-sized image albumartsmall.jpg if you'd like: This file is used to store the album art thumbnails you see in folder icons.
Introduction
Windows XP represents Microsoft's big push to get the largely Windows 9X-based user community to an operating system family based on the Windows NT-kernel. In Windows XP, new client services not only blend the ease of use of familiar Windows 9X profiles with the robustness of Windows NT (and Windows 2000) user management, but significantly improve on the combination. While the majority of these advancements will be appreciated most by home users, enterprise customers that share assets-for instance, with shift workers and telecommuters or with users who access e-mail from multiple machines while roaming-will also see improvements.
Many computers are shared between multiple users, particularly in the home environment where studies have shown that 80% of computers are used routinely by multiple people. In previous versions of Windows NT, user account management-which could be strictly enforced across the enterprise by administrators-was a somewhat tricky process that was beyond the abilities of most non-computing professionals. Simple-to-use Windows 9X profiles, however, were not enabled by default and were largely ignored: The cost of actually using the profiles, which required that users log off before allowing other users to access the system, meant that the vast majority of machines made do with a single shared profile, with all of the corresponding security, configuration, and data-loss risks.
In Windows XP, user profiles are always enabled and even non-enterprise users are encouraged to create accounts during the Setup process. These accounts are based on Windows NT profiles and allow Windows XP to provide strong isolation and protection of users' data and settings. If multiple user accounts are configured on a machine, then users are presented with a Welcome screen that appears featuring separate-and customizable-graphics for each user. Users of Windows XP machines that are members of an NT-style domain do not see this screen, since presenting a list of machine users could be considered a security violation. A new control panel applet replaces the familiar Windows NT User Manager and Windows 2000 Computers and Users snap-in, providing a simple interface that allows almost anyone to set up a new user and give them appropriate rights and privileges.
Fast User Switching
Windows XP introduces fast user switching. Undoubtedly, fast user switching is the single most important feature that makes sharing Windows-based computers workable. Using fast user switching, it is not necessary for a user to log off the computer before allowing a second user to access their own account. Instead, the first user's account is "disconnected," which leaves all the programs running; the second user can then log on, and then the users can switch quickly between logged-on accounts. Many accounts can be open simultaneously on one computer, though only one account at a time will be able to interact with the keyboard, screen, and input devices.
In the home environment, for instance, fast user switching allows a parent working on a personal finance program to yield the computer to a child to work on homework by browsing the Internet, without requiring the parent to shut down and restart the finance program and without exposing the child to the parent's financial information. In the business environment, fast user switching can allow multiple users in a common environment, such as a research lab, to share a single machine.
Fast user switching is just one of two mechanisms that allow multiple users to work with a single system. Remote desktop, another built-in Windows XP feature, allows users to interact with machines remotely across a network and to access data and applications on those remote machines. While fast user switching is aimed principally at the home market, remote desktop enables business users to access their corporate desktops from remote computers-and vice versa, enabling them to operate home machines while at work.
Programming Issues
Both fast user switching and remote desktop use Windows XP's updated terminal services technology. Improvements have been made to both the server and client components of terminal services. Windows XP now features support for both local and remote sound, 24-bit video, performance optimizations, and the mapping of the local drives and printers.
Fortunately, most applications don't have to be rewritten to work with terminal services and, thus, fast user switching and remote desktop. Rather, they need to respect basic user settings management guidelines. These guidelines are not new: Most are covered in the Windows 2000 Certified for Windows Application Specification, which has been available on Microsoft's Web site for some time. The Data and Settings Management section of this specification includes several topics that are particularly important when supporting multiple users on a single machine:
· Default to the My Documents folder for storage of user-created data;
· Classify and store application data correctly;
· Degrade gracefully on "Access denied" messages.
Mostly, this means isolating data and settings for each user. And an important step in this direction is to ensure that you are using the HKEY_CURRENT_USER registry key rather than HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for storing settings in the system registry. You should also be careful to install programs correctly and to classify and store data correctly. You can use the ShGetFolderPath API to obtain the path of a specific named folder-such as "My Documents" or even "Program Files"-as well as the appropriate directories for storing Roaming, Non-Roaming, and Shared application data. The following are some general guidelines for locating data:
· Profiles\username\Application Data\appname
- Roaming, auto-created user files (e-mail DB, custom dictionaries…)
· Profiles\username\Application Data\Local Settings\appname
- Discardable/local-only user data files (e.g., offline stores)
· Profiles\All Users\Application Data\appname
- Last-resort for local-only, common dynamic data (e.g., log files)
A notable exception to the isolation rule is that you should support "All Users" installations: It is extremely frustrating for users to install the same application repeatedly for multiple user accounts.
By carefully locating user data, user settings, and computer settings, applications can make it easier for users to backup individual documents and settings, share a computer among multiple users, and even to work with the same documents and settings on multiple computers. By handling data and settings properly, you can enable your application to run in both the home (fast user switching) and business enterprise (remote desktop) marketplaces.
Controlling Running Instances
It is common for applications to control their startup so that only a single instance may be running on a machine at any given time. There are many valid reasons for doing this: licensing restrictions, required dedicated access to specific hardware resources, and perhaps even enforcing data integrity. However, with multiple users on the same machine, it might be desirable to allow multiple users-each with their own instance-to work with (for example) a personal finance program as long as their data remains isolated. At this point, the commonly used mechanisms for controlling running instances may exhibit some unwanted side effects when operating under Windows XP's fast user switching or remote desktop.
The most common method for discovering whether another instance is running is to use the FindWindow or FindWindowEx APIs to search for a window that, if your application is running, you know to be open. Somewhat unexpectedly, both of these APIs work in a single user session only. So using this method won't prevent another instance of your application from being started by another user.
A more robust method for controlling multiple instances is to use one of the NT kernel objects: events, semaphores, mutexes, waitable timers, file-mapping objects, and job objects can all be used with Global\ or Local\ prefixes on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. By default, each user (terminal service) session will have its own namespace for kernel objects. By creating a Global\ object-for instance, a mutex or semaphore-when your application is started (and closing it upon exit), your application can detect running instances across multiple user (terminal service) sessions. Of course, you can't just switch to the previous instance: It may be in another session! What typically happens in that case is the user clicks on an icon and then nothing appears to happen (since the app thinks it's located another running instance). At a minimum, you should warn the user that there's another instance running.
What about sound? Well, the terminal services in Windows XP have been designed to configure sound to both the interactive and disconnected sessions. While it may be difficult to imagine at first, there may be valid scenarios where it would desirable to output multiple audio streams. For instance, what if you used a sound card in one user session to output audio to the home stereo system and at the same time the active user wanted to hold an interactive meeting with sound? In this case, you certainly would not want to blend the two streams. And neither would you want to suspend the audio stream in the disconnected session. Getting this right can be particularly important when working with shared media devices like DVD players.
One general guideline is to do "as little as possible, as much as necessary" when you are the disconnected session. To do this, it can be helpful to know when a session switch occurs. While most applications won't need to be notified, if your application accesses a shared resource-such as a serial port or other hardware device-you may want to know when the machine switches between user sessions. To be notified when a session switch occurs, you must register to receive the WM_WTSSESSION_CHANGE message by calling the WTSRegisterConsoleNotification API. Using this function, you can choose to be notified for a single session or for all sessions, and when either local or remote sessions connect or disconnect. When you no longer require notification, you should unregister using the WTSUnRegisterConsoleNotification API.
Summary
If you isolate access to your application's data and settings and take care not to tie up shared resources, your application should work well with Windows XP's terminal services. By developing your application to assume it's not the only thing running on the machine, your users are likely to have a much better experience when they start using it with Windows XP's new fast user switching and remote desktop features.
You must first enable the Remote Desktop feature on your office computer so that you can control it remotely from another computer. You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group to enable Remote Desktop on your Windows XP Professional-based computer.
To setup your office computer to use Remote Desktop:
Open the System folder in Control Panel. Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the System icon.
On the Remote tab, select the Allow users to connect remotely to this computer check box, as shown below.
Ensure that you have the proper permissions to connect to your computer remotely, and click OK.
Leave your computer running and connected to the company network with Internet access. Lock your computer, and leave your office.
The Remote Desktop Connection client software allows a computer running Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 to control your Windows XP Professional computer remotely. The client software is available on the installation CD for Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition. The client software is installed by default on computers running Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Home Edition.
To install Remote Desktop Connection software on a client computer
Insert the Windows XP compact disc into your CD-ROM drive.
When the Welcome page appears, click Perform additional tasks, and then click Setup Remote Desktop Connection as shown below.
When the installation wizard starts, follow the directions that appear on your screen.
Once you have enabled your Windows XP Professional computer to allow remote connections, and installed client software on a Windows-based client computer, you are ready to start a Remote Desktop session.
To create a new Remote Desktop Connection
Open Remote Desktop Connection. (Click Start, point to Programs or All Programs, point to Accessories, point to Communications, and then click Remote Desktop Connection.)
In Computer, type the computer name for your computer running Windows XP Professional that has Remote Desktop enabled and for which you have Remote Desktop permissions
Click Connect.
The Log On to Windows dialog box appears.
In the Log On to Windows dialog box, type your user name, password, and domain (if required), and then click OK. The Remote Desktop window will open and you will see the desktop settings, files, and programs that are on your office computer. Your office computer will remain locked.
Nobody will be able to work at your office computer without a password, nor will anyone see the work you are doing on your office computer remotely. Note: To change your connection settings, (such as screen size, automatic logon information, and performance options), click Options before you connect.
To open a saved connection
In Windows Explorer, open the My DocumentsRemote Desktops folder.
Click the .Rdp file for the connection you want to open. Note: A Remote Desktop file (.rdp) file contains all of the information for a connection to a remote computer, including the Options settings that were configured when the file was saved. You can customize any number of .rdp files, including files for connecting to the same computer with different settings. For example, you can save a file that connects to MyComputer in full screen mode and another file that connects to the same computer in 800×600 screen size. By default, .rdp files are saved in the My DocumentsRemote Desktops folder. To edit an .rdp file and change the connections settings it contains, right-click the file and then click Edit.
To log off and end the session
In the Remote Desktop Connection window, click Start, and then click Shut Down.
The Shut Down Windows dialog box appears.
In the drop-down menu, select Log Off , and then click OK.
Get Orkut Scraps Via sms
This will be one of the things all World would have thought in their dreams. Every one would be in eager to check their scraps to Know whether he/she has scraped me. Here is an end to that!!!
Follow the steps carefully to get scraps on you mobile for Free
1. Login to your orkut account and click on your profile itself.You will get see something like this in your browser address bar
http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=10961323513766675899
In the place of 10961323513766675899 will be displayed your ID no. Make a note of this Number.
2. Now go to http://www.mytoday.com/ and register your mobile. This can be done by sending sms REG to 9845398453. This will cost you 2 to 3 Rupees based on the operator.
3. Now Mytoday will send you your password to your mobile.
4. Login to you Mytoday account using
Username: mobile no
Password: you got in sms
5. Click on the Manage Feeds
Now you would see like this
Manage Feeds
Folders:
* Default
* Email
* SMS
6. Click on SMS
Now You will find an option to
Add Feed
Name:
URL:
7. Now insert your orkut id in the space 10961323513766675899
http://www.orkutfeeds.com/feed.php?uid=10961323513766675899
So now this link will look like
http://www.orkutfeeds.com/feed.php?uid=10961323513766675899
To disable unneeded startup services for a safer, faster XP, use the "Services" Admin Tool (Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services). If you are a single user of a non-networked machine, you can disable the following items, with no ill effect.
Alerter
Clipbook
Computer Browser
Fast User Switching
Human Interface Access Devices
Indexing Service (Slows the hard drive down)
Messenger
Net Logon (unnecessary unless networked on a Domain)
Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing (disabled for extra security)
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager (disabled for extra security)
Remote Procedure Call Locator
Remote Registry (disabled for extra security)
Routing & Remote Access (disabled for extra security)
Server
SSDP Discovery Service (this is for the utterly pointless "Universal P'n'P", & leaves TCP Port 5000 wide open)
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telnet (disabled for extra security)
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Upload Manager
Windows Time
Wireless Zero Configuration (for wireless networks)
Workstation
Sharing of files and folders can be managed in two ways. If you chose simplified file sharing, your folders can be shared with everyone on your network or workgroup, or you can make your folders private. (This is how folders are shared in Windows 2000.) However, in Windows XP Professional, you can also set folder permissions for specific users or groups. To do this, you must first change the default setting, which is simple file sharing. To change this setting, follow these steps:
•Open Control Panel, click Tools, and then click Folder Options.
•Click the View tab, and scroll to the bottom of the Advanced Settings list.
•Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box.
•To manage folder permissions, browse to the folder in Windows Explorer, right–click the folder, and then click Properties. Click the Security tab, and assign permissions, such as Full Control, Modify, Read, and/or Write, to specific users.
You can set file and folder permissions only on drives formatted to use NTFS, and you must be the owner or have been granted permission to do so by the owner.
To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, perform the following steps.
Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt.
In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type cmd and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.
Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.
NOTE: Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted prior to executing the convert command. It is also recommended to verify the integrity of the backup before proceeding, as well as to run RDISK and update the emergency repair disk (ERD).
1: Go into MY COMPUTER
2: Have a floppy disk in your drive and then RIGHT click on on the floppy drive and then click on FORMAT
3: You will be greeted with a number of options. The one you need to select is "Create an MS-DOS start up disk".
Some people have noticed that they are experiencing a really slow shutdown after installing Windows XP Home or Professional. Although this can be caused a number of ways, the most clear cut one so far is happening on systems with an NVidia card installed with the latest set of drivers. A service called NVIDIA Driver Helper Service is loading up on start up and for whatever reason doesn't shut itself down properly. The service isn't needed and can also increase the amount of memory available to your system. Here is how to disable it.
1: Go into your Control Panel
2: Select Administrative Tools and then click on Services
3: Right click on the file "NVIDIA Driver Helper Service" and then select STOP.
4: To stop this loading up every time you boot up your PC Right click it again and select properties - then where the option "Startup Type" is shown - make sure it is set at Manual like we have shown in the image below.
Do you need a free Flickr Pro Account? Some lucky Non-profit Organizations can get a free Flickr Pro account. Flickr has partnered with TechSoup, a US-based non-profit technology training service, to donate 10000 1-year Flickr pro accounts for good causes.
Free Flickr Pro Accounts
The initiative is called Flickr for Good. Techsoup explains details about the Flickr Donation Program. The pro accounts are available in packages of either two or five accounts, which organizations must assign to individuals over 18 years of age, and the accounts will remain assigned to those individuals even if they leave the organization.
Flickr is a popular site for photo storage, sharing, and organization. With a Flickr account, individuals can showcase and chronicle their organization’s work through their own photography. Flickr members can store all their photographs of their organization’s work in one place if they have the legal right to do so. Account holders can upload photos to Flickr from anywhere in the world.
The Flickr Pro Upgrade is otherwise charged at $24.95 a year and comes packaged with unlimited storage, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited photo sets, unlimited uploads, permanent archiving and photo stats.
Currently this program is only available to qualifying non-profit organizations who are duly registered as such in Canada, and USA. Till then you can also give the Gift of Flickr, a worthy gift for bloggers.
The latest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 Beta (IE8) is now available for download. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 is a developer preview for web designers and developers to help prepare their websites for the launch of the final release Internet Explorer 8.
Internet Explorer 8 introduces a new way to seamlessly experience the best of the web whether you are a web developer writing to standards or a user discovering a new online service. Be one of the first developers to take advantage of improvements in Internet Explorer 8 for your websites and applications. Check the release notes.
New Features in IE8
Favorites bar (Links bar makeover) to enable users to associate this bar as a place to put and easily access all their favorite web content such as links, feeds, WebSlices and even Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.
WebSlices is a new feature for websites to connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds where clients can subscribe to get updates and notify the user of changes.
Activities are contextual services to quickly access a service from any webpage. Users typically copy and paste from one webpage to another.
Download IE8
IE8 aims to deliver full CSS 2.1 support, better scripting performance, and HTML5 support in the final IE8 product. If you decide to go testing, get the Microsoft Report a Webpage Problem Internet Explorer Add-on that allows the user to submit a report to Microsoft for webpages they believe are having rendering problems, scripting errors, or various other types of problems.
Internet Explorer 8 can be installed on Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista, Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 will not install on prerelease versions of Windows Vista SP1 or on checked versions of Windows. Download here.
YouTube is the most popular site to visit for viewing online videos, sharing your favourite videos with people and commenting on videos you like. Recently YouTube was acquired by Google for a few billion dollars. Here is a collection of several YouTube third party tools which enhance your YouTube experience.
* YouTube Userscripts - a collection of scripts to perform several tasks with YouTube.
* Youtube Video Slideshow - insert a username or a video tag below and it starts a slideshow.
* fTube - a YouTube player that downloads the list of 25 most recent videos featured on the YouTube front page. The user can select a video from the list and hit the play button to play it in-Flash.
* TubeCH - YouTube flash player.
* iTube - grab Youtube videos, then convert and import them into iTunes. Requires .Net framework and works exclusively on Windows.
* TvTube - For Mac users. Allows you to browse YouTube, Google Video and Yahoo Videos, for movie clips that people upload, choose your favorite clips and add them to your shared library.
* YouTube API Extraction Tool - PHP script that taps into the YouTube API to deliver videos by tag, by username or what’s a current favorite.
* YouTube Widget - brings all of YouTubes videos to your Mac Dashboard.
* Search The Tube - A quick way to find videos for your website, blog or profile.
* YoutubeCrazyVideos - A Youtube videos desktop player. Freeware.
* IndexTube - categorized and browsable index of the publicly available Youtube videos.
* YouTube Podcaster - makes Podcast feed from your submitted keyword or url. The feed is made up from embedded youtube video IDs and all videos are converted to the MP4 file format.
* MemoriesOnWeb - freeware photo slideshow software for YouTube.
* Overstream - lets you add subtitles to online videos.
Integrate YouTube Into Your Site / Blog
* YouTube badge maker - will show your viewers images of your 6 most recently uploaded videos.
* YouTube Wordpress Plugin - Display YouTube videos on your Wordpress blog according to Tags.
* YouTube Video Gallery Wordpress Plugin - displays a gallery of videos from youtube.com.
* WordPress Related Videos Plugin - Uses tags to look for related videos on YouTube, displays the three most recent related videos on your WordPress blog post and updates videos automatically.
* Wordpress Favourite YouTube Videos - Wordpress plugin / widget to display, in a very configurable manner, your latest favorite videos from Youtube.
* Viper’s Video Quicktags - WP plugin that easily generates codes for copy / pasting to embed videos from sites like YouTube and Google Video or for self-hosted videos into your posts.
* WP-FLV - Wordpress plugin simplfies the process of inserting flash video files (FLV) inside a Wordpress post or page.
* TubePress - a highly configurable WordPress plugin that displays YouTube videos in an embedded gallery in posts and/or pages.
Download and Save YouTube Videos
* Delutube - Deleted Youtube video viewer.
* Video Downloader - a firefox extension that allows you to download videos to your computer from YouTube and most video sites.
* YouTubeX - allows you to save and download YouTube videos easily using only your IE or firefox browser.
* TubeSock - grabs YouTube videos from the web and copies them to your video iPod, Mac, or PlayStation Portable.
* VideoDL - is a quick AJAX application that allows you to download online video into your computer. It supports top 3 video sites - YouTube, Google Video, and Break.com.
* Download YouTube via bookmarklets - A collection of Greasemonkey scripts and bookmarklets to do the job.
* Youtube-dl - is a small command-line program to download videos from YouTube.com. It requires the Python interpreter, version 2.4 or later.
* KeepVid - Download videos direct from most video sites like YouTube.
* YouTube Downloader - enter url and download YouTube videos.
* Youtube Grabber - is a free tool that downloads FLV files from youtube.
* GooTube FLV Retriever - enter the video page URL, download the youtube video.
* Capture Youtube and Google videos - save them as AVI files encoded in the MPEG4 format, using only one command.
* YouRipper - a freeware software which enables you to download videos from the YouTube and Google Video
* Save YouTube Videos - paste the youtube video url and download the video.
Top / Best YouTube Videos
* PureVideo - collects top 10 videos from around the web
* The World Internet TV charts - tracks the most popular video clips from four leading Internet TV sites.
* Top YouTube Videos - a daily updated selection of the most popular videos from YouTube.
* Vidspedia - is a collection of the best Google and YouTube videos, submitted and rated by users.
* Youtube top-rated - a coverpop with the 1,001 top rated videos from YouTube updated every week.
* Best of YouTube - a blog selecting the best Youtube videos.
* Viral Video Chart - tracks the world’s most blogged about videos including GooTube and MySpace.
We all have USB flash drives, pen drives, memory drives and it is a great data storage and safe data transfer gadget. But if you believe that flash memory is secure and stable forever, you are wrong.
Flash memory is considered insulated from jerks and related damage. However, these USB pen drive do get corrupt as I noticed. I use a top branded 512MB USb drive and am using it for the last 6 months and it worked very well. (I do not rely on cheap unbranded usb drives - you never know when your data is lost)
So of late, when I started to open my powerpoint presentations, they would not open. Thankfully I had a back up CD. So what went wrong. Well some files opened and rest did not. Some error had occurred during transfer or storage as the main file from which it was transferred worked well. So the problem was in a data storage as the transfer was smooth.
WARNING: Please try all these procedures at YOUR OWN RISK. I take no responsibility for your actions. There is no surety it will work. You may land up deleting all data or making your drive unusable. I am no expert in fixing usb drives. This is just my experience of how I fixed my usb drive. It is always best to seek professional support from the manufacturer (and some advise against formatting your USB lash drive).
Some tips to fix and format your USB Flash Drives.
An important precaution is not to remove the pen drive while the data is being transferred. Always remove the pen drive after stopping it. Go to ‘Safely remove hardware’ (green arrow icon art bottom right corner), stop the usb drive and when it says it is safe to remove it, then remove it.
Always check by opening your important files before that important presentation. If it does not open now, probably it will not open there also. If it works now, it should work there also.
If for some reason your file does not work. Transfer another copy of the file with a renamed version - it may work..
If you delete the file and retransfer the same file with the same name and size, it probably gets written to the same area and will not work. A different name with a different size gets written to another area and can work. Its better to transfers 2 copies of your file anyway.
If you want the presentation to work on older computers (like Windows 98), do not forget to take the drivers CD which will allow such computers to recognize your plug and play usb drive. Always keep this invaluable CD handy, you never know when you encounter an older computer. I also keep a copy of the Wind 98 driver on the USB drive, can become useful on eday.
If your flash drive data is still getting corrupted.
After going to My Computer, Right click the Removable drive, Go to Properties >Tools. Run Error Checking and Scan for errors and fix them. The files that are corrupt or in bad sectors already will not work but at least the new transferred files should work.
If all fails, format your drive.
It will delete all the data from your USB drive and make it fresh and hopefully remove all errors. The software for formatting comes on the CD or available on support sites for your branded usb drive on the net. For some reason, when I ran this formatting software, it would say the USB drive is not connected.
How did I format my flash drive?
Right click removable drive and select and format the drive. Then scan and fixes all errors. So all the bad sectors are fixed and my drive has become all new and is working well now.
In the File System drop down, you will see FAT and FAT32. So which one to select?
If you right click Removable Drive >Properties
The General Properties of the USB drive reveals it is FAT, so I use FAT in the format utility. Then just select “Quick Format” and “Start” and all data will be deleted and hopefully all errors are now gone.
If still none of these tips work
Get hold of the warranty and get it fixed from customer support.If all fails…. its time to buy a new high memory storage USB drive !