Sunday, March 30, 2008

Restore Accidentally Deleted Recycle Bin Icon From Desktop - Windows Vista Tip

Problem

When you are deleting unnecessary images, documents and shortcuts placed on the desktop, you deleted Recycle Bin icon by mistake. Now you want to restore the accidentally deleted Recycle Bin icon on to the desktop.

Solution

Follow these steps to restore Recycle Bin icon on to Desktop

  1. Right click on empty area of Desktop and choose the option Personalize; display Personalize appearance and sounds window

  1. Choose the option Change desktop icons  available under Tasks in the top left side of display window; displays Desktop icon settings window

 

  1. Select the check box Recycle Bin

  1. Click on Ok to save the settings
  2. Return to your Desktop to see the restored Recycle Bin icon

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Unable to create the virtual directory. Configuring the virtual directory for ASP.NET 2.0 failed - Problem and Solution

When you try to create a virtual directory for a Web Application Project using Web Property page options of Visual Studio 2005, the following error message is displayed if IIS settings are not proper. The actual error message displayed by Visual Studio 2005 is

---------------------------
Microsoft Visual Studio
---------------------------
Unable to create the virtual directory. Configuring the virtual directory for ASP.NET 2.0 failed. You may need to manually configure this site for ASP.NET 2.0 in order for your site to run correctly.
---------------------------
OK  
---------------------------

How to fix the problem?

Invalid ASP.NET version settings is the cause for this error message. When ASP.NET version of IIS is not same as the version of Visual Studio, Visual Studio fails to create virtual directories.

For example, if you are using Visual Studio 2005 with an  IIS configured with ASP.NET v1.1 is an invalid configuration.

In order to solve the problem follow these simple steps

  1. Go to Start Menu, click on Run (alternatively use Win Key + R )
  2. Type INetMgr and press enter to open Internet Information Services Application
  3. Expand the tree node displaying local computer name and navigate to Web Sites-->Default Web Site
  4. Right click on Default Web Site node and select the popup menu option Properties

  1. Navigate to ASP.NET tab in the properties page and set the version to 2.xxxx(for Visual Studio 2005) or 1.xxxx(for Visual Studio 2003)

  1. After configuring ASP.NET settings in IIS, recreate the virtual directory using the Property page of Visual Studio Web Application. Visual Studio successfully creates the virtual folder.

      Namaste!

    Thursday, March 27, 2008

    Easily Find Out When Was the Computer Turned On

    Want to know when was the computer turned on? It is very easy. Open command prompt and execute the simple command systeminfo | find/I "Boot Time" . It displays the date and time at which computer was last booted as shown in the below image.

    When SystemInfo command is executed, it gather system information like OS Version, Hot fixes installed, network to which it is connected and other parameters.

    If you observe the command which we issued, a Find filter is used to filter the output of SystemInfo command to display only System Boot Time. Try executing SystemInfo command in the command prompt to have a look at valuable information about your system. [via Amit]

    Wednesday, March 26, 2008

    Learn to Iron Shirts and Pants In a Smart Way

    VideoJug has two nice videos explaining how to iron shirts and pants in a smart way. Even though most of the men hate ironing the dress, it is very much required to wear wrinkle free dress. Lets learn how to iron dress in a smart way.

    Ironing a shirt

    Here are the summary of tips shown in the video

    1. Iron your shirt before it's fully dried to easily iron out crease. If the shirt is fully dried moisten it again.
    2. Adjust heating level of the Iron by reading the instruction available on the label inside the shirt
    3. Unbutton the shirt, including the cuffs
    4. Begin with the collar, inside and out, starting at the tips and working your way to the back
    5. Do the shoulder yoke ( watch video for tips on this area)
    6. Do the cuffs and sleeves
    7. Iron the front and back. Back is low priority as it will wrinkles sitting against the of the chair or car


    Ironing a pant

    Here are the summary of tips shown in the video

    1. Moisten the pant to iron out crease easily
    2. To avoid getting the horrible shininess common in wool or dark fabrics, use a damp cloth or tea towel to protect the trousers: Lay the cloth or towel over the trouser leg, and iron through it
    3. Do it one leg at a time
    4. If there is a crease running down the length of the trousers from the last time you pressed them, iron it out
    5. If you wish to iron in a crease at the front of the trousers, use a pressing solution.


    Tuesday, March 25, 2008

    Useful Google Search Feature: Date-Based Search to Get New URLs for the Query

    Here's an advanced Google search option that didn't get much attention.Suppose you wanted to see all the new urls that Google found on internet for the query within the last 30 days.

    For the query "TechDreams", I’d use a query such as http://www.google.com/search?q=TechDreams&as_qdr=d30 to find those urls (remember, “d” stands for days)

    You can easily remember the parameter name as_qdr as “advanced search — query date range”.

    Friday, March 21, 2008

    Common Sense Tips to Keep Children Safe Online[Google Official Video]

    Google teamed up with Common Sense Media to create this videos of tips to keep kids safe while browsing Internet. Here are the few tips presented in the video to keep kids away from inappropriate content and protect them from spammers

    • Place the computer in a central place like living room so that parents can monitor when kids are browsing
    • For healthy reasons set a timer to make sure kids are not browsing more than 2 hours a day
    • Continuously monitor the browser history to check what they are watching online
    • Configure Google Safe Search to apply strict search results filtering rules
    • Teach Internet safety tips and educate them to configure the privacy settings in Social Networking Sites(Orkut, Facebook, etc.), Instant Messengers(GTalk, Y! Messenger..) and photo sharing sites(picasa, flickr)
    • Teach kids not to believe what ever they see online as there are many unauthenticated content providers post what ever they want

    Watch the full video for more tips

    Sample ASP.NET & C# Code To Implement OpenID Authentication In Web Sites

    Today while reading few technical articles regarding OpenId authentication implementation in ASP.NET, I came across a nice article written by Mads Kristensen. Mads Kristensen article OpenID implementation in C# and ASP.NET explains how to easily authenticate web site users with OpenId service .

    ASP.NET(C#) code to implement OpenID

    The entire source code of his demo application is available to download from here and it is ready to execute without any changes. Just open the downloaded code in Visual Studio and press F5 to see the application in action.

    If you are planning to add authentication mechanism for a web application or trying to improve your existing web application authentication system, it is recommended to implement OpenId standards as major players like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Digg are backing OpenId.

    >>Download the source code

    Thursday, March 20, 2008

    Reduce Cost For Delivering Videos On Your Websites

    If you are considering to host videos on your web site, we recommend you to read a nice post on saving cost of video hosting by reducing network bandwidth usage by ScottGu.

    ScottGu explains how web site owners can use the free video hosting services of Microsoft's Silverlight and Google's YouTube.  Also he explains about the new IIS Module which throttles the video download if you would like to host videos on your own streaming servers.

    If you are a blogger or ASP.NET web site developer it is worth reading this article.

    [end of the post]

    Use GMail For a Clean and Healthy Bath

    Use GMail for a Clean and Healthy Bath - this is what one of the Soap manufacturers in Russia is trying to say to the world. A Russian soap manufacturing company is selling soaps with GMail logo on the soap case and GMail engraved on the soap.

    Initially we thought these are Photoshop images. But after watching the below video which shows using of GMail soap, we believe these are real images.

    Whether it is fake or original, it is worth watching this cool stuff.

    Via Amit and AboutColon

    Wednesday, March 19, 2008

    Access Blocked AIM/Google Talk/Yahoo Messenger/MSN Messenger At Your Office, School, College or University

    There are so many easy ways to access most of the blocked websites. In our earlier posts we explained 4 different ways to access any blocked website, tricks for accessing blocked Orkut, Access Blocked YouTube at Office / School / University and Accessing Blocked Web Sites at WiFi Hotspots.

    Now let us learn how to access Instants Messengers(IMs) like MSN Messenger/Windows Messenger, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger when they are blocked at your Office/

    The work around to access blocked Instant Messenger is to use Web Messengers. Web Messenger are very easy to use as there is no need to download and install any software/plugins.

    Access Blocked AIM/Google Talk/Yahoo Messenger/MSN Messenger At Your Office, School or University - Image

    There are many of web messengers available today which allows you to login to most of your favourite messengers at a time. Here is the list of web messengers which allows you to log in to AIM, Google Talk, MSN/Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.

    1. Meebo
    2. eBuddy
    3. ILoveIM
    4. KoolIM
    5. SNIMMER
    6. Mabber
    7. MessengerFx

    The following are the official web messengers form AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo which allows you to connect to respective messengers

    1. AIM Express
    2. Google Talk
    3. MSN/Windows Live Web Messenger
    4. Yahoo Web Messenger

    It is most unlikely that your organisation would have blocked these web messengers too. It is suggested to try at least 3 of the above websites to get access.

    Do let us hear through comments if you know any other tricks or popular web messengers that we missed to cover.

    Disclaimer: Use these tip and tricks at you own risk. Your organisations may consider accessing blocked web sites and messengers as breach of security policies and guidelines that may result in any inconvenience.

    Monday, March 17, 2008

    How To Clean Your Personal Computer[Video Guide]

    VideoJug has a very good collection of videos which explain and simplify our day to day activities. Recently we posted two videos from VideoJug:  Master How to Knot a Tie in 10 Minutes - Windsor Knot and How to Cut and Disjoint Whole Chicken With No Waste 

    Here is another interesting video which is useful to almost all the personal computer users - How to clear a computer with vinegar.

    To clean dust and static free your computer first use a vacuum clearer remove dust from keyboard, Cabinet and other peripherals . Then use distilled vinegar to wipe body of the computer. The end result is a tidy and static free computer.

    Thanks Amit

    Sunday, March 16, 2008

    How To Delete A Site Created Using Google Sites

    Google recently launched Google Sites, a  service that allows people to work collaboratively. Google explanation of Google Sites

    People can work together on a Site to add file attachments, information from other Google applications (like Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube and Picasa), and new free-form content. Creating a site together is as easy as editing a document, and you always control who has access, whether it's just yourself, your team, or your whole organization

    You can read more about Google Sites in an excellent article written by Google Operating System(GOS) blog.

    After reading the GOS article I created site by the name test  and played with the cool features. The user interface which allows to edit the web pages and upload document is very simple and easy to use(now and then I encountered problems while saving).

    Test site created using Google sites

    As it is a test site which was created to understand Google Sites, I decided to delete it. To my wonder, I could not find any on screen option on the main page to delete the site. It took almost 5 minutes to dig through all the available links and identify the options to delete the site. Here are the steps you need to follow to delete a site

    1. Log in to Google Aps
    2. Browse to the site which you want to delete(click on the URL of your Google Sites page and choose your site)
    3. Once you open the site with an interface similar to  above shown image, identify and click the link Site Settings available on the top right area;
    4. In the displayed tabbed interface click on the tab page Other Stuff
    5. Click on the option Delete this site link available at the bottom of Other Stuff settings page
    6. Your site will be deleted once you accept the warning message.

    Friday, March 14, 2008

    The world’s most expensive phone - Piece Unique

      The GoldVishPiece Unique” is the most expensive mobile phone in the world, according to Guinness Book of Records and it costs about $1.6 million .Only three people on the planet have such a handset.  Evgeny Chichvarkin(Russian), Euroset CEO is one of the GoldVish Piece Unique owners in the world. However, rumors are circulating that all GoldVish Piece Unique owners are Russian.

    Here’s a quick excerpt  from the manufacturer’s site :

    "Our aim is to create each cell phone as a masterpiece in its own right. In addition to the ILLUSION collection, GoldVish manufactures a limited range of customised cell phones, with personalised engravings and diamond settings.

    The limited editions will be distributed worldwide. This unique and very exclusive collection is only available on special request. GoldVish makes cell phones of unparalleled luxury backed by the highest levels of Swiss craftsmanship and precision. For more details and questions, go to the contact button."

    Thursday, March 13, 2008

    Drag and Drop Your Web Pages into Google Docs using gDocsSidebar add-on for Firefox

    Every time you want to open or upload something to Google Docs, you have to first navigate to Google Docs, log in, find what you’re looking for - or navigate to the upload section. Well, not with the handy, free Firefox plugin Google Docs Bar!

    The extension has many features from Google's file explorer: you can search for a file, restrict the list to documents, spreadsheets or presentations and view a certain folder

    A great feature that makes this extension more valuable is uploading files using drag and drop. Drag one or more files from Windows Explorer to the sidebar and they'll be uploaded in the background.

    Wednesday, March 05, 2008

    Add Flickr to the right-click "Send to" menu in Windows.

    Sendto Flickr is a free Windows explorer extension that allows you to upload images to Flickr through the right-click “send-to” menu.

    sendtoflickr2

    Sendto Flickr can used with any image or photo stored on your computer, over a network or even on removable drives.Also supports:

    • Batch uploading: simply select multiple images and right click to upload. Files will be uploaded sequentially and previewed as they are uploaded.
    • No image or metadata editing: unlike some of the other Flickr uploaders that do this, this one is just about 1-click uploading; you do not need to enter photo details.
    • Authorization: will require that you authorize it to use the Flickr API to access your account. Will take you through the steps after installation. You will not need to enter account details every time you upload.

    Sunday, March 02, 2008

    How To Hide Google Adsense Ads In Home Page And Display Them Inside Post Pages Alone [Blogger Hacks]

    One of my friends recently approached asking me to help him to hide Adsense ads on the home page of his blog and display them only in the individual article pages. It is a good idea to remove Ads from home page and display them in the article pages to give a professional look to the blog.

    He motivated me to write this article and share the information of how to configure Blogger blog template to display ads only in the post pages alone. Let us see the steps to be followed for modifying the template to implement this

    1. Log in to Adsense
    2. Generate code required for displaying appropriate ads on you blog and paste it to a notepad
    3. After pasting the code to the notepad, remove the line breaks and comments from the Adsense code. Make sure that you code looks like the following (do not to modify any script of Adsense, just remove the line breaks and comments alone)

    1. Your Adsense code is ready now. Lets modify blogger template
    2. Log in to your blogger account select Layout of the blog which you want to modify
    3. Navigate through Template --> Edit HTML
    4. Take backup of your template by clicking Download Full Template. This backup will help you if you want to revert to old template
    5. Select Expand Widget Templates option to get access to the full code of the template
    6. Search for <data:post.body/>  in the template HTML and place the following before the <data:post.body/>

    <b:if cond ='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>

    <!-- Paste your adsense code prepared in step 3 here -->

    </b:if>

    1. Replace the text <!-- Paste your adsense code prepared in step 3 here --> with the adsense code which you prepared in the step 3 using notepad.
    2. After completing the replace operation, code in your template should look similar to the following

    <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
      <script type="text/javascript">google_ad_client = "pub-asdfsadff";google_ad_slot = "123123123";google_ad_width = 336;google_ad_height = 280;</script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script>
    </b:if>
    <data:post.body/>

    1. Save the template by clicking on Save Template button
    2. That's all. Your Blogger template is configured to display ads only in the post pages

    Troubleshooting Guide

    Why Ads are not displayed?

    This happens if you modify any attributes of Google Adsense ads by mistake while removing the comments and line breaks.  To solve the problem, get the Adsense code again from Google Adsense and remove the line breaks and comments carefully.

    Why Ads are displayed in a table with borders around them?

    This happens when the line breaks and comments are not replaced from the Adsense code pasted in Blogger Template. Remove all the line breaks and comment start tags and end tags to solve the problem.

    If you face any other problems, please post a comment. We will help you to solve the problem.

    Too Many Friends Disturbing You in GTalk? Set Status to Idle.

    The simplicity and elegant user interfaces of Google made us to love Google Talk instant messenger. But the honesty of Google Talk annoy us at time when we can not respond to all the friends who want to chat with us.

    In Google Talk there is no option set our status to appear offline or Idle. Busy is the only possible status which we can set and the other possible status is Idle which I set by Google Talk( If you lock your computer or leave it idle for sometime Google Talk automatically turns the status to Idle.)

    However there is a simple work around to set you status to Idle by installing a small software called gAlwaysIdle. Here is what gAlwaysIdle does for you

    gAlwaysIdle adds two new options to Google Talk, allowing you to change your status to be 'always idle' or 'never idle'. When your status is set to 'always idle', you'll appear idle to your Google Talk buddies, even if you're sitting at your computer typing e-mails and sending IMs

    gAlwaysIdle is compatible with Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems and you can download it from www.galwaysidle.com

    Thank you very much Sudhakar for the excellent finding.

    Grand Mothers View Of a Remote Control [ Funny ]

    This is a funny comic which made me to laugh and understand how my grand mother feels when she sees a remote control.

    The original site has a larger version of the image.