Are you wondering, “Why is my computer slow?” Do you need help figuring out how to speed up your computer? Computers are wonderful devices that allow us to do many things but things can get rough once the garbage that comes in through our internet connection begins to stop up our system.

Follow these steps below and you will see a noticeable improvement in your system.

1. Download Microsoft’s Anti-Spyware program, Adaware, and Spybot Search and Destroy. Microsoft’s program can be downloaded at Microsoft Windows Defender. Adaware can be downloaded at Lavasoft Downloads. Spybot can be downloaded at The Home of Spybot-S&D. All of these programs are free.

2. Install Microsoft’s anti-spyware program now, but not the other two.

3. Run MSconfig. To do this, select Start>Run and type msconfig into the space. Select the Startup tab and get rid of all unnecessary programs. The way to determine this is to go to ProcessLibrary.com and check it against their database.

4. Boot into Safe Mode. To do this, restart the computer and press F8 continuously. Select the Safe Mode option from the list and continue to desktop.

5. Delete any spyware programs from your add/remove. To do this, select Start>Control Panel>Add or Remove Programs. Check all unknown programs against SpywareGuide.com.

6. Locate the temp folder in your computer and delete everything in the folder. This is located, usually, in C:\Documents and Settings\Username\local settings.

7. Still in Safe Mode, install Adaware and Spybot. Run Adaware, Microsoft’s anti-spyware and Spybot. Update to the most recent definitions in each program and run them in full scan mode. Microsoft’s program cannot be installed in Safe Mode. You have already installed it.

8. Reboot into standard Windows mode.

9. Download HijackThis. You can get this program here Merijn.org. Install and run it. Click Do A System Scan and Save A Logfile. HijackThis will analyze processes that are running on your computer and alert you when there are things running that should not be there. It will also let you know when there are programs running that are not malicious but can safely be gotten rid of because they are not needed.

10. Post the logfile in the Automated Log Analyzer at HijackThis.

11. After determining what’s safe and isn’t, check appropriate boxes and click Fix Checked.

12. Run the Microsoft Anti-Malicious program, which you can download at the Microsoft Download Center. This program is designed by Microsoft to detect and remove programs whose sole purpose is harming your computer. The technical term for this type of program is a rootkit.

13. Download and run BLBeta Expert. This can be downloaded at F-Secure Blacklight. Make sure to carefully review anything it detects before removing. BlBeta is another program that is designed to get rid of rootkits.

14. For Internet Explorer, click Tools> Internet Options> Security Tab. Click on the Internet Globe icon and select Custom Level. Disable the following:

a. Download Unsigned ActiveX Controls.
b. Initialize And Script ActiveX Controls Not Marked As Safe.
c. Active Scripting.
d. Scripting Of Java Applets

Also click High Safety under Java Permissions.
If this causes trouble viewing any favorite sites, click the Trusted Sites icon of the Security Tab and use the Sites button to add the URL’s of sites that are exempt from these requirements. The purpose of these changes is to tighten the security of your system so that not so many malicious programs make it to your system.

15. For Firefox, type about : config in the address bar. Right click in the window and click New and Integer. In the first box, type privacy.popups.disable_from_plugins. In the second box, type 2. This will prevent Flash popups in Firefox.

16. Open Regedit by clicking Start>Run and type in regedit. (Before editing the Windows Registry, don’t forget to backup it first)

17. Once Regedit is open, click the plus symbol next to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER folder, the plus symbol next to Control Panel, and then click the Desktop folder icon to display its contents. In the right pane, double-click MenuShowDelay to change its value. (This Registry location is referred to as HKEY_CURRENT_USER\CONTROL\PANEL\DESKTOP\MENUSHOWDELAY.) The default Value Data is 400, or 4/10 of a second. Change the Value Data to 0 for the least delay, and click OK. This will make menus appear instantly on your computer instead of having a delay.

18. Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\FILESYSTEM. Right-click Filesystem, select New, and DWORD Value. Rename NewValue#1 on the right-side pane to DisableNTFSLast-AccessUpdate. Double-click this new entry, change the Value Data field from 0 to 1, and then click OK. This disables the constant updating of the dates when a file or folder were last updated. This will speed up the system.

19. Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINDOWS\CURRENTVERSION\EXPLORER. Create a new DWORD Value called DesktopProcess, and set its Value Data to 1.

20. Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER, expand Control Panel, and click Desktop. Double-click the AutoEndTasks string and change the value to 1. This causes all of the components of the explorer to run in one process, making your computer faster.
There is a caveat for some users here. Do not make this change if you are not running at least a Pentium processor and 16 MB of physical memory.

21. Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, expand SOFTWARE, expand Microsoft, expand Windows, and expand CurrentVersion. Right-click Explorer, expand New, click Key, and name the new key AlwaysUnloadDLL. Click AlwaysUnloadDLL, double-click the Default string, and change the value to 1. Windows tries to keep some DLL’s in memory when the program uses them. If a user has low memory, this can cause performance issues.

22. Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER, expand Control Panel, and click Desktop. Double-click the HungAppTimeout string and change the value to 1000. Now, double-click the WaitToKillAppTimeout, string and change the value to 2000. This sets your system up to more efficiently handle application hangups. It also will optimize the amount of time a system takes to close a program when you try to end Windows.

23. Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, expand System, expand CurrentControlSet, and click Control. Double-click the WaitToKillServiceTimeout string and change the value to 2000. This optimizes the time that it will take for Windows Services to close when the system is set to shut down.

24. Expand HKEY_CURRENT_USER, expand Control Panel, click Desktop, and double-click the MenuShowDelay string in the right-hand pane. Change the value to 100. This will cause Desktop menus to appear almost instantly.

25. Close regedit.

26. Set Recycle Bin to 1-3 percent of the hard drive space. To do this, right click on the Recycle Bin. Select properties. Move the slider down to the desired amount and click Ok. By default, the Recycle bin takes up too much of your space.

27. To ensure DMA is in use, click Start, right-click My Computer, click Properties, select the Hardware tab, and click Device Manager. Expand the IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers entry, double-click the entry for the channel where your hard drive is installed (most likely the Primary IDE Channel), and use the Transfer Mode drop-down menu to select DMA If Available if PIO Only mode is selected. Click Ok, reboot, and recheck the setting to make sure it sticks. When this is enabled, it will allow information from your CD/DVD to go straight to memory, bypassing the system processor and speeding up the system.

You should notice markedly increased speeds in your computer. Remember that this is not a “do once and forget it” procedure.

Crud is constantly building up in your computer, so make sure and set up a maintenance plan to keep your computer clean.

It’s important to keep your Windows registry running lean, and that takes regular computer maintenance. This will prevent your computer from running slow.

Gmail, known for its faster access & reliability, is one of the best free email provider that offers unlimited (or ever increasing?) mailbox space (Currently 7356 MB) with user friendly internet mail client. Apart from the basic mail settings available on other free email services, Gmail also has other settings that you might never use before , but may be useful for you in the near future. All of these settings are available from the Gmail “Settings” page.  How to Use Gmail in Offline Mode? Google Gears makes it so explains its extented ability to be accessed in the offline mode(when your network is not connented to Internet).

Here are the 15 Gmail settings that you probably miss out. So, configuring & customizing your Gmail account that suits your taste will be quite useful to you.

1- Gmail display language – if your mother tongue is Italiano, Bahasa Indonesia etc. , why don’t you try Gmail with some local flavors?

2- Maximum page size – 50 email documents in one page is too much clutter? Set it to 25!

3- My picture – send out your email attached with avatars automatically, so people recognizes you faster.

4- Personal level indicators – turn off the arrows on your mail document list if you find it annoying. I prefer to have it turned on so I can differentiate an email from a mailing list from personal emails.

5- Snippets – turn off / on snippets (message excerpts) besides your mail document list.

6- Vacation Responder – have Gmail automatically reply for each one of your email, useful when you are out of the office for a few days.

7- Send mail as – use a different address as your sender’s email address (From:). Imagine sending an email via your Gmail and ask the recipient to reply to another alternate email address.

8- Mail Fetcher - get other email documents from other POP email accounts displayed inside your Gmail. Great to combine multiple accounts into one.

9- Filters – automatically sort received email documents from different recipients to specific folders / labels. Comes with multiple filter types.

10- Forwarding - send a copy of each newly arrived emails to another email account. For backup maybe?

12- POP Download / IMAP Access - access your Gmail email documents from your desktop email client, online or offline.

13- My Clips – show or disable web clips (news headlines, Gmail tips, blogs, any RSS and Atom feed, relevant sponsored links, and more). Useful to show instant updates of your favorite RSS feeds.

14- Gmail Labs – Try out the experimental stuff from the gmail team & experience the innovative facilities in your Gmail account.

15- Themes – Give your Gmail account more interesting looks & feels by choosing your Gmailtheme form a variety of Gmail themes pack.

0×80070005 FIX will simply attempt to repair the dreaded 0×80070005 error messages when trying to register dll files while installing certain Windows components or programs.
Sometimes you will not get this specific error number, but just an Installation Failed message. This tool will in most cases also repair these errors, for example: Internet Explorer 7 installation failure. It will accomplish repairing these errors by restoring your computer to the original installation default security settings.Because restoring your security settings to its defaults can’t be undone, 0×80070005 FIX will automatically create a System Restore Point for you.

Installation
0×80070005 FIX is fully portable, meaning that it requires no installation and can be run directly from a USB flash disk. It also writes absolutely no settings to the Registry or the user’s folder. It is a very simple utility and, for this reason, does not demand any installation utility. Simply unzip all files to any folder and run the executable file (usually, 0×80070005.exe).

Download Here

If you do not have any 0×80070005 errors or Installation problems, do not run this tool, it will be unnecessary.

Basically, in order to transfer songs from the iPod to your computer, you have to undermine the design of the iPod.  Whenever you use a device in a way it’s not designed, you increase the chances that it’ll break.  That said, a lot of people have done this with no problems and it’s a real life saver if your computer crashed and you lost your whole iTunes music library.

1. First you need to connect the iPod without iTunes doing the auto-sync.

• Hold down the Shift and Ctrl keys while connecting the iPod to your computer.
• Don’t let go of Shift+Ctrl.
• If iTunes doesn’t open automatically open after connecting the iPod, open iTunes.
• Don’t let go of Shift+Ctrl.
• Wait until the iPod comes up in the Source list under DEVICES (it may take a while, butdon’t let go of Shift+Ctrl)

Important:  iTunes may pop up asking you to choose an existing library or to create a new one.  Click Create a new one so that it can just open.

Once it shows up, close iTunes

2. Now find the songs on your iPod and copy them to a folder on your computer.

• From the Desktop, go to My Computer and click once (or select/highlight) on the iPod, (usually drive E:, F: or G:).
• Go to Tools > Folder Options.
• Click View tab > scroll to Show Hidden Files and Folders and select it. Click OK.
• Look in the iPod drive, and find a folder called iPod_Control and open it.

  You’ll see the Music folder. In it will be folders and files named F00, F01 and so on.

• Note: To see the original name of the song/file, just mouse over it.
  • If you need all the contents of the iPod on you computer, copy the whole Music folder.
  • If you only need some of the files, look through the Fxx folders until you find the files you want and copy.
  • To copy:
    • Click once on the folder or hold down the Ctrl button and click once on each of the folders you want.
    • Go to the Edit menu and select copy.
    • Minimize all windows, right click over a blank area of the desktop, select New> Folder (name it Songs).
    • Right click over the Songs folder and select Paste.
      • Depending on the number of songs, this may take a long time to complete.

  Note: All the hidden files that are on your iPod are playable on iTunes once you transfer them to your computer’s iTunes.

3. Now have iTunes import that folder to your music library

• Open iTunes (if needed) and go to File > Add Folder to Library.
• Select the folder you want to import and click OK.
• This also may take awhile to complete.

• If you think you’ll be doing this a lot, you should look into two things:
  1. Back up your iTunes library to an external hard drive periodically.
  2. Use an “iPod management software” other than iTunes.  See this comparison of iPod managers on Wikipedia.
• You might want to set iTunes to manually manage your iPod.  This will mean you will have to drag-n-drop new stuff onto the iPod yourself.
• Depending on which iPod model you have, the iPod may get very hot during the copying process.

With every update Apple puts out (almost weekly it seems), something changes.  If something in this article didn’t work, leave a comment (scroll down a bit) and tell us where the problem is.  This way we can do some tests and rewrite the article.  Thanks!

It’s a long weekend and you’re happy because you’ll get to spend the next three days with your family. You left the office in an excited mood but as the cab was approaching home, you suddenly realized that you forgot to shut down the Office PC. Oops!

It’s a sinking feeling because there’re so many confidential documents on the computer and since most of your trusted colleagues have also left for the day, there’s no point calling them for help.

So what do you do? Drive back to Office? Well that’s not required – just take out your cell phone or switch on the laptop at home, send an email (or an SMS or a tweet) and that will instantly lock your Office workstation. And if you share the same computer with multiple people, you can use another email command to remotely log off or even shut down the computer from anywhere in the world.

There’s no magic here, it’s the power of TweetMyPC utility that lets you remote control your computer from a mobile phone or any other Internet connected computer.

It works like this. You first install the free TweetMyPC utility on any Windows PC and associate your Twitter account. The app will silently monitor your Twitter stream every minute for any desktop commands and if it finds one, will act upon it immediately. The initial version of TweetMyPC was limited to basic shutdown and restart commands, however the current v2 has a far more robust set of commands, enabling a far more useful way of getting your PC to carry out certain tasks especially when you’re AFK (Away From Keyboard).

Before we get started, it may be a good thing if you can set up a new twitter account for remote controlling your desktop and also protect the status updates of this account to ensure better security.

Protecting the account means that you prevent other users from reading your tweets which in this case are email commands that you sending to the computer. To protect your Twitter profile, log in to Twitter with the credentials you want to use, click Settings and check the box next to “Protect my Updates”.

Let’s get started. Install the TweetMyPC utility of your computer and associate your Twitter and Gmail account with the application. It will use Twitter to receive remote commands (like shutdown, log-off, lock workstation, etc) from while the email account will be used for send your information (e.g., what process are currently running on your computer).

How to Send Commands to the Remote Computer

Now that your basic configuration is done, it’s time to set up a posting method. You can use email, SMS, IM, web or any of the Twitter clients to send commands to the remote computer.

By Email: Associate you Twitter account with Posterous (auto-post) and all email messages sent to twitter@posterous.com will therefore become commands for the remote computer.

By SMS: If you live in US, UK, Canada, India, Germany, Sweden or New Zeleand, you can send associate Twitter with your mobile phone  and then control your remote computer via SMS Text Messages.

By IM: Add the Twitter bot – twitter@twitter.com – to your list of Google Talk buddies and you can then send commands via instant message.

By Web:If you are on vacation but have access to an internet connected laptop, just log into the Twitter website and issue commands (e.g., shutdown or logoff) just as another tweet.

Download Files, Capture Remote Screenshots & more..

While the TweetMyPC is pretty good for shutting down a remote computer, it lets you do some more awesome stuff as well.

For instance, you need to download an unfinished presentation from the office computer so that you can work on it at home. Or you want to download a trial copy of Windows 7 on the Office computer while you are at home.

Here’s a partial list of commands that you can use to remote control the PC – they’re case-insensitive and, as discussed above, you can send them to Twitter via email, SMS, IM or the web.

Screenshot : This is one of the most useful command I’ve come across after the shutdown command. Want to know what’s happening within the confines of your PC when you’re not around? Just tweet screenshot and TweetMyPC will take a screenshot of your desktop and post it to the web (see example).

ShutDown, LogOff, Reboot, Lock : The function of these useful commands is pretty obvious from their names.

Standby, Hibernate : Don’t want to shutdown the remote PC? Save power by entering standby mode with this command. Or hibernate your PC with a tweet, thereby saving even more power.

Download <url> : You can download any file from the Internet on to the remote computer using the download command. For instance, a command like download http://bit.ly/tCJ9Y will download the CIA Handbook so you have the document ready when you resume work the next day.

GetFile <filepath> : The Download command was for downloading files from the Internet onto the remote computer. However, if you like to transfer a file from the remote computer to your current computer, use the GetFile command. It takes the full page of the file that you want to download and will send that you as an email attachment. If you don’t know the file page, use the command GetFileList <drivename> to get a list of file folders on that drive.

GetProcessList : This is like a remote task manager. You’ll get a list of programs that are currently running on the remote computer along with their process IDs. Send another command kill <process id> to terminate any program that you think is suspicious or not required.

Conclusion:

TweetMyPC is a must-have utility and you never know when you may need it. And if you have been trying to stay away from Twitter all this time, the app gives you a big reason to at least create one protected account on Twitter.

That said, there’s scope for improvement. For instance, the app will wait for a minute to check for new messages in your Twitter stream so it’s not “instant”. The developers can actually increase that limit because the Twitter API now allows upto 100 checks per hour.

And since the app is dependent on Twitter and Gmail, it will not work during those rare fail-whale moments.

Unlike Gmail, Windows Live Mail (formerly known as Hotmail) never allowed POp3 access for its free users. This feature was one of the most wanted feature by Live Mail users.

Omar Shahine, lead program manager for Windows Live Hotmail, recently told that the Live Mail team would be releasing POP3 access for its users. Not all users, but to a few countries first which include United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Japan etc.

Windows Live Mail POP3 Configuration and Settings

If you are one of those who recently got POP3 access for your Windows Live Mail, you can configure your desktop email clients using the following settings.

POP server: pop3.live.com
POP SSL required? Yes
User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com
Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
SMTP server: smtp.live.com
Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
TLS/SSL required? Yes

If you are a Yahoo! Mail user and want to get POp3 access, trying getting Yahoo! Mail POP3 with YPOPs!

Want to use Gmail on Outlook Express? Just follow the steps given below and you’ll be using your Gmail account on Outlook Express in no time.

• Make sure POP access is turned on for your Gmail account.
• Select Tools | Accounts… from the menu in Outlook Express.
• Click Add | Mail….
• Type your name.
• Click Next >.
• Enter your Gmail address.
• Click Next >.
• Make sure POP3 is selected under My incoming mail server is a __ server..
• Type “pop.gmail.com” under Incoming mail (POP3, IMAP or HTTP) server:.
• Enter “smtp.gmail.com” under Outgoing mail (SMTP) server:.
• Click Next >.
• Type your full Gmail address under Account name:.
• Enter your Gmail password under Password:.
• Click Next >.
• Click Finish.
• Highlight the newly created pop.gmail.com account.
• Click Properties.
• Go to the Servers tab.
• Make sure My server requires authentication is checked under Outgoing Mail Server.
• Go to the Advanced tab.
• Make sure This server requires a secure connection (SSL) is checked under bothOutgoing mail (SMTP): and Incoming mail (POP3):.
• Type “465? under Outgoing server (SMTP):.
  • If the number under Incoming server (POP3): has not been changed to “995? automatically, enter “995? there.
• Click OK.
• Click Close.

Editing the Windows Registry has the potential to improve your system’s performance, but making a mistake can destroy Windows and cause you great distress. Here are five tips for keeping yourself anxiety-free—and for keeping your PC alive.

• The best protection from Registry hassles is to have a current full-system backup. You ought to create one right now, even if you’re not planning to mess with your Registry anytime soon. For a tutorial, read “how to Prevent a Data Disaster”

• Before you open the Registry cleaner, use ERUNT (emergency Recovery Utility NT; to back up the Registry. I know, it’s redundant, since the Registry cleaner will back up any changes it makes, and since you (should) already have a full system backup. But having a separate Registry backup will make it easier to restore your system quickly if something goes wrong.
  

• Prior to scanning with your Registry cleaner, close all other applications; if possible, unload any tools running in your system tray, too. Open apps constantly make Registry changes, and you want the Registry cleaner to do its work with no interference along the way.

• When using a Registry cleaner, stay alert and read whatever the cleaning tool’s wizard has to say. With most other programs that employ wizards, it’s no big deal if you pay scant attention and just keep clicking the Next button. But that isn’t the case with Registry cleaners.

• After the scan, the program will let you remove (or in some cases, repair) the Registry errors. if you are given the option, set the Registry cleaner to remove errors only at the safest and least-intrusive level. (you can scan again with more aggressive settings later on.) Even at that, you might see 1000 or even 2000 “safe” entries that need cleaning. For instance, Registry First aid found 2161 problems on my PC, of which it deemed about 1900 safe to alter. Whatever you do, never choose an auto cleaning option. Instead, be sure to approve each change manually, which keeps you in control.

If you are using Google Chrome browser and forgot login password details of any specific website then don’t worry because we have a tool which is capable to decrypt or recover the login secrets stored by Google Chrome . ChromePasswordDecryptor can automatically recover the login secrets by detecting the default chrome profile path for the current user and displays all the stored login credentials in clear text after decrypting them . This program can also display all the blacklisted website entries for which user has prompted Chrome to not to remember the passwords .

Other features of ChromePasswordDecryptor tool :-

1. With this program to take backup of the login secrets for the stored websites .

2. You can transfer the secrets from one system to another .

3. Helps you to store the website passwords at more secured centralized location .

4. It helps you to recover the passwords in case Chrome becomes not accessible or non functional .

If you want to know more about it that check this main website - Download Chrome Password Decryptor

VLC 1.0 has got several cool new features, one of which is the ability to record what is playing in the screen.  Here we will take a look at how easy it is to record a DVD or other video formats using VLC.

Record Using VLC

You won’t see the record button in the default view so we need to make it available in the control panel by going to View and selecting Advanced Controls.

Now you can see the Record button along with a couple other handy controls like snapshot and looping.

Now when you start up a DVD or other video simply click on the record button and hit is a second time to end the recording.

While it is recording notice that the record button will be blue.

The recorded video is in MPEG format and stored them in the Documents folder labeled as VLC Record with the date and time.

This is a great way to save entire movies or specific scenes you want to watch later on your hard drive.

Of course VLC won’t burn the recorded MPEG file to DVD but you can certainly use other programs for that.  This is a much different process than “ripping” and you will need to play the video while it records.

Download VLC 1.0 for Windows, Linux, OSX

]]> http://techplore.com/technology/how-to-copy-a-dvd-with-vlc-1-0/feed/ 0 http://techplore.com/technology/protect-your-dvdcd-from-damages-must/ http://techplore.com/technology/protect-your-dvdcd-from-damages-must/#comments Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:18:42 +0000 Abhijit Kamal http://techplore.com/technology/?p=1232

DVD, CD and BD media keep their data only for a limited period of time. And the data starts to degrade slowly. It might be possible to get back some files on the DVD’s or CD’s but in case of one single big file of some650 MBor like wise things become hard. Even if a small part of that file gets unreadable we lose the whole file. You might have got errors such as “Cannot copy file: Data error (cyclic redundancy check)“ / “Cannot copy file: Cannot read from the source file or disk” like wise.

The invasion Flash Drives and portable hard disks have still not affected the market of CD’s and DVD’s and still are the most widely used storage mediums used today. Their cheap price is the main factor behind this gain. DVD’s and CD’s are cheaper but they lack one defect. DVD’s and CD’s gradually degrade with time. In the earlier days i used to take backups of my important data to CD’s and keep them safely (almost at a dust proof place). I thought that even after long time my data would be safe. My PC’s hard disk used to work 3-5 hours during those days. So i thought that it would be safer to store and Keep the data in CD’s rather than keeping on my Hard Disks. But when i tried to read the CD after a very long time but every time it failed. The CD’s were not able to read except very few.

But there is happy news for all. There is a way to Protect DVD, CD or BD Medias from future damages. We can still recover the data stored in them very easily.

Thanks to dvdisaster. Dvdisaster will help you to recover the data’s stored in old CD’s, DVDs etc. dvdisaster is one nice software that helps us to recover data from DVD’s, CD’s etc. dvdisaster makes this possible by integrating some error detection and correction codes along with the burned data. So even if some read errors have developed the data will be completely recoverable. The data recovery will be possible even if the DVD, CD or BD gets scratched or gets errors due to its oldness. dvdisaster reads the original DVD or CD and then creates an error correction file which consumes a 15% of additional space. For e.g. if a CD of 700MB of data is taken it needs approx. 105MB of space for creating the error correction file and a 4.7GB DVD file needs an error correction file of approx. 700 MB space. When the DVD, CD or BD get’s scratched or encounter readability problems or errors, then dvdisaster will make use of the error correction file to correctly recover the data from the scratched DVD, CD or BD.

How to Use dvdisaster to Protect DVD,CD or BD

1. First insert the DVD/CD from which needs to be protected.
2. Run dvdisaster and choose the correct DVD/CD and fromFileclick onSelect Imageand give the destination to save the image file.
3. Again fromFile SelectParity Fileand give the location to save the error correction (.ECC) file.
4. Selection the option calledReadsee in the right pane of dvdisaster. This will take some time so go for a cup of coffee ad relax.
5. After the reading process gets finished clickCreateoption to create the ECC file.

How to Use dvdisaster to Recover  DVD, CD or BD from Read Errors

From the above mentioned steps we have successfully created the error correction file. Now whenever you have read errors with your DVD, CD or BD and not able to copy the files from them properly, just follow the steps below.

1. Run dvdisaster and locate the DVD/CD and click onRead.
2. Now just choose the ECC file present in the DVD/CD and click onFix. You can burn the image file in ISO extension to a DVD/CD.

What if i haven’t created the Error Correction (.ECC) File before ? I have a very old DVD/CD with me.

I am sure at least some of the users (may be most) reading this post will have this question in their mind.

dvdisastercan also be used to recover the contents of a damaged DVD/CD even when if you havent created the error correction (.ECC) file before / if no ECC file is available. Only problem is that the data recovery chances are less without the error correction (.ECC) file

dvdisaster will create an image file by reading the entire disk by skipping unreadable portions / damaged parts and then tries to recover the missing data from the DVD/CD by scanning then repeatedly.

And the best of the best dvdisaster is free and it is available for Windows, Mac OSX,Linux and Unix.

Download dvdisaster

If you’re one of those unfortunate Pre users that updated to iTunes 8.2.1 without seeing our warning, there are two options. You could either downgrade to iTunes 8.2, or use one of these alternative apps and future-proof yourself.

The problem with downloading to iTunes 8.2 from 8.2.1 is that isn’t quite as straightforward as replacing the iTunes app. You have to replace some other support files. The easier way is to use one of these four options. And, you have the freedom to update iTunes to any future version without worrying about whether or not it’ll mess up Pre syncing.

1) doubleTwist, by DVD Jon. [Download]

doubleTwist lets you access your iTunes Library in that you can see all the music and playlists (even smart ones) you’ve already established. Once you connect your Pre in USB mode, all you have to do is drag playlists or individual songs over to the Pre to have it sync. There’s no library view, as in you can’t drill down into artists, so you should organize your songs into playlists you want to sync inside iTunes first.

The downside of this method is that there’s no progress bar so you can’t see how much of your sync is done. The syncing process also isn’t foolproof, and froze on me mid-sync. But it does have the ability to import YouTube videos, which is kinda awesome. And, it doesn’t support the actual playlist function on the Pre, so your songs are going to be in one big pile. (You can sift through Artists, Albums, and Genres, of course.)

Update: The Windows version has automatic playlist sync (screenshot here), and the Mac is getting it this fall. What I meant to say was, the playlist support doesn’t work on the Pre side, not to be confused with the playlist support on the computer side. Jon of doubleTwist tells me that the Pre doesn’t actually support playlists in non-iPod mode right now. Hopefully that’ll come some time in the future now that the iTunes sync is becoming an issue. Thanks Jon!

Best all-around experience since this is a media-manager in itself

Doesn’t support playlists, and lack of progress bar when syncing

2) Just dragging music over into the media folder

One feature of iTunes that not many people know about is its ability to just drag and drop songs from iTunes the app to any location. So if you open up iTunes to the playlist, select all the songs inside the playlist and drag it into the Pre’s USB drive.

Drawback to this method is that it’s still one-way sync (you can’t uncheck or check a playlist to sync or de-sync easily), so you’ll have to clean things up yourself after your sync. It has the same no-playlist support problem as doubleTwist

Easiest method

Bare bones: no playlist support, no song management

3) iTunes Sync on Windows

It’s essentially a very simple version of doubleTwist, where you can select playlists one by one and sync them over to the Pre while it’s in USB drive mode. This does have a progress meter, but it’s Windows-only.

Progress meter is a plus

Windows-only

4) iTuneMyWalkman [Download]

Mac-only, but it creates a M3U playlist when you’re syncing music.

There are other utilities, of course, but one of these four should be enough to get you started. If you have one that does something better than the ones here, feel free to share them in the comments.

Playlist support!

Mac-only

Source:- Gizmodo

3D Typographic design is now more popular and we can notice a surge for 3D Type work on portfolio sites. Here we have collected 25 of the cool 3D typographic Text effect tutorials, well some of them are all done by the combination of some 3D software’s like  Studio Max, Xara and some times illustrator with texture and coloring done in photoshop and others completely designed using photoshop. hope you like this collection

Fresh Typographic Effect

New Way to Create 3D Text

Create a Spectacular Style Text Effect

Valentines Day Photoshop Style

Suspended Text Effect

Design Soft Stylized 3D Type

Kaboom Exploding Text

Stunning 3D Effect

Spectacular Flaming Meteor Effect

Unique 3D Photoshop Tutorial

Using Light and Shade to Bring Text to Life

Burning Hell Text Effect

Glow Letter with Perspective

3D Graffiti With Photoshop

Spectacular Grass Text Effect

Colorful 3D Text in Photoshop

Transformers Style Text Effect

3D Textured Text Effect

3D Reflective Glass Photoshop

Retro Pop Style

3D Colorful Text Explosion

3D Text Effect

3D Text Effect 2

3D Text Effect 3

3D Clif Text Effect

]]> http://techplore.com/technology/25-amazing-photoshop-3d-text-effect-tutorials/feed/ 2 http://techplore.com/technology/how-to-become-a-nano-vj/ http://techplore.com/technology/how-to-become-a-nano-vj/#comments Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:35:00 +0000 Abhijit Kamal http://techplore.com/technology/?p=1048

DJing is so 1993. These days it’s all about the multi-sensual, multi-media extravaganza that is VJing- more specifically, Nano VJing.

In order to take your live audio and video sensation onto the streets, you need the most portable kit going. Tonium’s spectacular Pacemaker 60 GB forms the cornerstone of this set-up. It’s unique in moulding a pair of decks, an effects-laden mixer and up to 15,000 tracks into one pocket-friendly ingot of funk. Klipsch’s squint to-see-them Image X10 headphones provide the requisite micro monitors, while mixes are blasted out through Blaupunkt’s Velocity2Go boom box.

Sure, there are smaller speakers, but not ones that can replicate the volume levels of a miniature PA in a single, easily luggable box. No other laptop of a similar size to the Sony P-series has the power to run proper visualization software, nor the storage (up to 128GB SSD) to snaffle a bank of video clips, but its ultra-crisp 8 inch screen is nevertheless too poky to supply your burgeoning crowd with the visual kicks they crave. Hence Acer’s diddy, brick-sized K10, an LED-powered DLP projector that thrashes any pico projector on resolution (858×600) and brightness (100 lumens), but will still fit into your grab bag. It’s some kind of black magic, we tell thee.