Archive for March, 2011

Ripping a DVD is necessary if you want to view those movies without having that DVD with you. There are many commercially available software for this purpose. Software like Magic DVD Ripper can be used for DVD ripping. With such software you can convert the resulting output to formats like VCD, AVI, WMV, SVCD, PSP and iPod formats. Apart from converting them you can also take a backup of the DVD in your hard drive.

So having the right tools you can easily rip a DVD. If you want to rip a DVD without spending much on buying software, you can do so with the help of DVD decrypter and autogk (auto Gordian knot). This autogk is a package of codecs that are used in the process converting DVD raw data to a windows file format. In this conversion process the decrypter is used to rip the .vob file and then this .vob file is used as an input to convert to other file formats using autogk. There are many tutorials in the web that give you all the details of the steps involved.

Technorati Tags: CD Burning, Blue Ray Disk, Copy Protection

There are security risks present when your network goes wireless. There are some steps that you can follow to reduce the security risks and to avoid them also. The service set identifier (SSID) should not be broadcasted. So turn off that so that your WLAN is advertised. Enable WEP on the WLAN. This will help you to prevent the casual sniffer from entering your network. There are some flaws in WEP and hence WPA is coming to picture now-a-days and those security issues are addressed. You can use MAC address filtering. This will help you in enabling only the trusted addresses to access your wireless network. There are also some drawbacks in this, since a dedicated hacker can also sniff that MAC address and use it. You can provide network coverage only to the areas needed by using directional antennas. Use SNMP community words and don’t leave it to be the default.

Technorati Tags: Hacking, Intrusion, Data Theft, Data Security

Is your computer speed similar to that of the speed when you bought it? If your answer is No, then it is time to do some cleanup and tuning to speed up your computer. Over time after using many programs in your computer and deleting some files, the file structure is not that much organized in your computer. Fragments of files would be scattered across the hard disk and it takes time for the computer to get it together. To ease this process you have to run the de-fragment tool so that the files are organized properly.

Apart from this you should check up the startup programs that load behind the scenes. This is also the cause for slowing down the computer. You can use the disk cleanup tool to recover some of the space computer which has junk information. Use the ‘disk cleanup’ tool for this purpose. Use the ‘Add or Remove programs’ in the control panel and remove the unnecessary programs which you do not use. Use the ‘msconfig’ utility to go to the startup tab and remove the unnecessary programs that startup during booting. Once you do this tidying it is possible to speed up your computer.

Technorati Tags: FSB, Scandisk, Data Cache

Blog is a web journal that allows you to post your opinions and thoughts. It allows you to share your thoughts with others and get their opinions also. Any person can start a blog. There are many blog providers on the net. Some of the popular ones are blogger.com, worpress.com, blog.com, etc. All you have to do is to sign up with such a provider. Once you have signed up, you will have access to a lot of ready made templates which can be used to start your blog. There is no need to know HTML or CSS to start a blog. If you know them it would be an additional advantage. There are also some other blog service providers that charge you a small fee and you get a lot more features with them. The content that you publish in your blog can be made public or private. When you make it public, anybody can view it and you can make it private among your group by providing password protection. Pick a template after you log in and then try posting some message in it. You have to try it to get accustomed to using it. It is easy to do so.

Technorati Tags: Web Posting, Web Hosting, SEO

There are times when you need to start your computer in the safe mode. In the safe mode only the essential programs and files are loaded, hence it is easy to use this mode to remove anymalware, adware, or spyware that is present in your system. Sometimes you have to restart your system in the safe mode to remove some virus or worm found in your system.

To restart the computer in safe mode, just restart it and once it is powered on, press the F8 key few times. You will be prompted with a screen with multiple options to boot the system. In that you will find the option ‘safe mode’ or ‘safe mode with network support’. Use the arrow keys in your keyboard to go to the option needed and press Enter. This will start your computer in the safe mode.

If you are having an Windows XP operating system then you can use the ‘msconfig’ utility to restart in safe mode. Use Start -> Run and type ‘msconfig’ to open it. Go to the boot.ini tab and you can find an option “/safeboot”. Check it. Now restart the computer to start in the safe mode.

Technorati Tags: Shutdown, Reboot, Safe Mode, Adware

Screenshots are necessary if you are person who is writing lots of technical articles. While writing a help file for particular software you might need to take screenshots. Screenshots find a lot of purpose. It is easy to take screen shots. All you have to do is just press a key in your keyboard to take a screenshot. There is a special key in your keyboard on the top right usually above the numeric pad keys. This special key is “Print Screen / Sys Rq”. By just pressing this key you will be taking a copy of the screen to the clipboard. Once you have the image in the clipboard you can paste it in any image editing software or even the MSWord document by just using ‘Ctrl V’ (equivalent to Paste in the Edit Menu).

Apart from this technique there are also many software available for taking screenshots. With this software you can configure a particular key or a combination of keys to take screenshots.

Technorati Tags: Print Screen, Screen Capture, Screenshots

For most of the modern websites to function properly in your computer, you have to enable JavaScript in your computer. You can do so in many ways depending on the browser that you use. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, then go to the Tools-> Options menu and click the security tab. Click Custom Level and choose Enable against Active Scripting. Click Ok and Ok to set it and leave the options.

If you are having Mozilla browser, then go to the Edit->Preferences menu and go to the Advanced options. Click Scripts and Plugins and Enable Javascript by checking the check box under Navigator. Click Ok to complete it. In Firefox browser go to the Tools -> Options and then to the Content Category. Check the check box that says Enable Javascript. It’s done!

Depending on the type of browser that you use, you have to select the options to enable JavaScript in your computer.

Technorati Tags: HTML, XML, JavaScript

Verifying an email address is a part of the registration process in many websites and services. You might need to enter a valid email address in the text box given and some information with an activation link is usually sent to the email address provided. You have to open your mail box and click the link in the email that arrives for that particular service. Upon clicking the link, your email address is verified as genuine by the service provider. This is how an email address is verified in any registration process. This allows the service provider to remove the invalid addresses from their database.

There are commercial products available in the market for verifying the emails that you have in your mailing list. These products allow you to send a confirmation email periodically and any mails that are bounced back or could not be delivered are removed from the database. Some web services are available in .Net that enables you to check an email address you have. These web services can be integrated into any application for verifying an email address.

Technorati Tags: Voice Mail, Chat, Blog

There are many hidden files in your computer and there are ways to view those hidden files list. Sometimes you might have made some files hidden so that others cannot see it. If you want to see the hidden files in your system, you can achieve it many ways. To start with you have to double click the ‘my computer’ icon on your desktop or open up the ‘window explorer’. If you are having windows 2000 or windows xp then you can go to the tools menu and click the ‘folder options’. Now click the view tab and then check the checkbox ‘show hidden files and folders’. This would make all the hidden files and folders visible in the windows explorer now.

If you are having Windows 95, 98, or NT, then you have a view menu and ‘options’ there. Click it. go to the view tab and then check ‘show all files’. Then click ‘OK’. This would end the task of making the hidden files visible.

Technorati Tags: Write Protection, Hidden Files, File Attributes

Without learning the intricacies of the real estate investing it is not wise to invest in it all of a sudden. You could think that you can invest in real estate today and become a millionaire tomorrow. It is easy to think so that doing it. It is not easy to make money in real estate investment unless you learn about it first hand. Calculating the returns on a property should be done properly to know what you get out of it before investing in it. Do some research and then find out the area that suits your budget and criteria. You should have knowledge of a particular area and have an understanding of how your investment is going to work before you plunge in real estate investment. This knowledge would aid you in getting profit out of your investment. You have to make sure that you have sufficient finance before going into that business. Don’t forget to take insurance.

Otherwise you might end up with sleepless nights. It is always wise to have some cash at hand that would come to your rescue in case of emergencies.

Technorati Tags: Immovable Property, Real Estate, Mortgage