Orkut : Community Polls

Orkut introduces a new feature for communities

Community Polls

You can post a question and a number of choices and run a poll in the community.
I think the feature is now available only to a limited set of communities.



Howzzat?

How did I Appear Offline in Gmail

A few minutes ago one of my friends told me I was appearing offline in gmail !!!
Here is a screenshot of this




How did it happen ?

Someone please explain ........

Why Laptop Performance lower on batteries

Why is my game running slower than expected when on batteries ?

The answer is, when your laptop is running on batteries, it tries to save power by reducing the clock speed. Thus the full speed of the CPU is not used and a lower clock speed is set. This is what that causes the game's poor performance.

How can i get the maxinmum performance on batteries ?

Performance can be gained by sacrificing power. So all you have to do is goto the
Control Panel » Power Options » Change the Power Scheme from Portable/Laptop to Home/Desktop. (Windows)

By doing this the laptop does not uses power saving schemes and your game will run at a better performance.

Got a Better answer?
Lemme know ...

Windows Drivers for Compaq Presario V3000

Compaq Presario V3155AU came with no driver CD ! So here is the link to download all the drivers for the V3155.

Software & Driver downloads Compaq Presario V3155AU Notebook PC

Here is the list of drivers you need to download and run :
» Install Microsoft UAA Driver. (Google Search)
» Conexant High Definition Audio (for AMD)
» NVIDIA nForce Chipset Driver
» NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 Graphics Driver
» Synaptics Touchpad
» Conexant HDAUDIO Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP Driver
» Broadcom Wireless LAN Driver
» HP Wireless Assistant
» Ricoh 5-in-1 Card Reader Host Controller and Driver
» AMD Processor Update for Microsoft Windows XP

Here is my device driver list screenshot after full installation :



Fedora Core 6
In FC6, changing the default driver from vesa to nv (nvidia) driver can cause the mouse pointer to disappear. Mouse pointer may be hidden or cannot be seen. So add the following lines to /etc/X11/xorg.conf to make it as follows :

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "nv"
        Option      "HWcursor" "false"
        Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
EndSection

Auto mounting File Systems in Linux

Some Linux Distros (like Fedora Core 6 FC6) do not automatically mount the local file systems such as FAT/FAT32 systems that belong to the windows drive. To mount and unmount file systems you must be logged on as a root user or must have root privileges

Mounting Manually

First change to root

@localhost ~]$ su
Password: Password
root@localhost ]# mount -t Filesystem Device Directory

Mounting the file system manually is done by the mount command.

Filesystem is vfat for FAT/FAT32 File System.
Other filesystems that could be given can be found on

/etc/filesystems

The Device can be got from System > Administration > Logical Volume Management which shows local hard drives and its name as

/dev/sdaX

or

/dev/hdaX

etc.

The Directory specifies which folder must the file system be mounted into. For example if you want to mount to mnt/hddC/ the device /dev/sda8 (FAT32) , the full command is

@localhost ~]$ su
Password: 
root@localhost ]# mkdir /mnt/hddC
root@localhost ]# mount -t vfat /dev/sda8 /mnt/hddC

NTFS
Install ntfs-3g module by yum install ntfs-3g

root@localhost ]# mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sda5 /mnt/hddD -o force

Unmounting the File System

@localhost ~]$ su
Password: 
root@localhost ]# umount /dev/sda8

Automatcially Mounting File Systems :

To automatically mount certain file systems, so that we do not want to do the same procedure each time the computer starts, we have to edit the

/etc/fstab

file. To edit the same you must have root access. Assuming you have root access to mount a local Filesystem, add the following line.

Device ID Mount Directory FileSystem Options

Eg:

/dev/sda8 /mnt/sda1 vfat rw,umask=0000,uid=500,gid=500 0 0

where the uid=500, gid=500 must be replaced by the proper user ids which can be got from System > Administration > Users and Groups in Fedora Core 6.

Automounting NTFS
Append

/dev/sda8  /mnt/hddD  ntfs-3g  default 0 0

Help me
I did this in Fedora Core 6. If any of you guys have any information on how to do the same on other linux distros , or if you have any other information, please post a comment.

The MP3 ID3 Tag

Intro: ID3V2?
ID3 tags are blocks of data in mp3 that stores information about the song. It can be used to store anything from album names, performing artists, movie/album, genre, to jpg pictures containing the CD covers. ID3V2 is the second version of the ID3 tag on mp3. The following is about the ID3V2 structure.

ID3 Tags can be found anywhere in the mp3 file and there is no typical standard for its location. So how do we find it ?

ID3 Tags start with the 3 letters ID3 (what else?). All data in the ID3 Tags are BigEndianBigEndian refers to the storage method in which the MSB is stored first followed by the bits to the LSB. This is opposite to the LittleEndian method in which the LSB is stored first and followed through to the MSB

ID3 Tag General Structure (ID3V2.4)
ID3 Tags can be imagines as a book, which contains many pages (called frames). Like any book, ID3 tag has a preface/intro about the tags that follows as a 10 byte header.

Header (10 bytes)

Extended Header (Variable) (optional)

Frames (Variable)

Padding (Variable) (optional)

Footer (10 bytes) (optional)

ID3 Header
ID3 Header is 10 bytes long.

ID:
 Byte1 : I   0x49 
 Byte2 : D   0x44
 Byte3 : 3   0x33  

 Byte4 : Major Version , Typically 2
 Byte5 : Minor Version , (Latest 4)

 Byte6 : Flag Byte [ABCD 0000]

Size:
 Byte7 : Length of the ID3 Frames.
 Byte8 : 
 Byte9 :
 Byte10: 4 x 8 = 32 Bit Unsigned Long Integer.

The Equivalent C structure for the ID3 Tag Header is given below :

struct id3v2header
{
 char id[3];
 unsigned char majVer;
 unsigned char minVer;
 unsigned char flags;
 unsigned long size;
};

The 8 bits on the flag have the following meaning

MSB
Bit8 : If SET indicates use of unsynchronization
Bit7 : If SET indicates presence of Extended Header
Bit6 : Experimental Bit
Bit5 : If SET indicates presence of Footer.
Bit4-Bit1 : Must be 0.
LSB

ID3 Footer Optional
ID3 is footer is same to that of the header except that the first 3 bytes contain 3DI instead of ID3.

ID3 Frames
Frames are like the pages of the book where the actual data is present.
As usually a frame starts with the Frame Header that describes the frame contents, like what the data following it is about.
Frame Header is 10 bytes long.

Frame ID : (4 characters long)
 Byte1 :    0xXX
 Byte2 :    0xXX
 Byte3 :    0xXX  
 Byte4 :    0xXX 

Size: (32 bit SynchSafe Integer)
 Byte5 : MSB
 Byte6 : 
 Byte7 : 
 Byte8 : LSB

Flags:
 Byte9 :
 Byte10: 

The Equivalent C structure for the Frame Header is given below :

struct id3v2frameheader
{
 char frameid[4];
 unsigned long size;
 unsigned char flag1;
 unsigned char flag2;
};

The Frame ID stands for a combination of characters A-Z , 0-9 to make an abbreviation for the contents :
Here are some of the common Frame ID's :

AENC  Audio encryption
APIC  Attached picture
ASPI  Audio seek point index
COMM  Comments
COMR  Commercial frame
ENCR  Encryption method registration
EQU2  Equalisation
ETCO  Event timing codes
GEOB General encapsulated object
GRID Group identification registration
LINK Linked information
MCDI Music CD identifier
MLLT MPEG location lookup table
OWNE Ownership frame
PRIV Private frame
PCNT Play counter
POPM Popularimeter
POSS Position synchronisation frame
RBUF Recommended buffer size
RVA2 Relative volume adjustment (2)
RVRB Reverb
SEEK Seek frame
SIGN Signature frame
SYLT Synchronised lyric/text
SYTC Synchronised tempo codes
TALB Album/Movie/Show title
TBPM BPM (beats per minute)
TCOM Composer
TCON Content type
TCOP Copyright message
TDEN Encoding time
TDLY Playlist delay
TDOR Original release time
TDRC Recording time
TDRL Release time
TDTG Tagging time
TENC Encoded by
TEXT Lyricist/Text writer
TFLT File type
TIPL Involved people list
TIT1 Content group description
TIT2 Title/songname/content description
TIT3 Subtitle/Description refinement
TKEY Initial key
TLAN Language(s)
TLEN Length
TMCL Musician credits list
TMED Media type
TMOO Mood
TOAL Original album/movie/show title
TOFN Original filename
TOLY Original lyricist(s)/text writer(s)
TOPE Original artist(s)/performer(s)
TOWN File owner/licensee
TPE1 Lead performer(s)/Soloist(s)
TPE2 Band/orchestra/accompaniment
TPE3 Conductor/performer refinement
TPE4 Interpreted, remixed, or otherwise modified by
TPOS Part of a set
TPRO Produced notice
TPUB Publisher
TRCK Track number/Position in set
TRSN Internet radio station name
TRSO Internet radio station owner
TSOA Album sort order
TSOP Performer sort order
TSOT Title sort order
TSRC ISRC (international standard recording code)
TSSE Software/Hardware and settings used for encoding
TSST Set subtitle
TXXX User defined text information frame

UFID Unique file identifier
USER Terms of use
USLT Unsynchronised lyric/text transcription

WCOM Commercial information
WCOP Copyright/Legal information
WOAF Official audio file webpage
WOAR Official artist/performer webpage
WOAS Official audio source webpage
WORS Official Internet radio station homepage
WPAY Payment
WPUB Publishers official webpage
WXXX User defined URL link frame

Reference from id3v2.4.0-frames.txt from id3.org

Frame Flags
Flag1 : Frame Status Flags
MSB:
Bit8 : Not Used Must be 0
Bit7 : If SET the Frame is discarded when a change in the TAG occurs.
Bit6 : If SET the Frame is discarded when the file is changed.
Bit5 : If SET indicates the tag is read-only and changing the contents may break some code.
Bit4 : Not Used Must be 0
Bit3 : Not Used Must be 0
Bit2 : Not Used Must be 0
Bit1 : Not Used Must be 0
LSB

Flag2 : Frame Format Flags
MSB
Bit8 : Not Used Must be 0
Bit7 : If SET indicates the presence of grouping information.
Bit6 : Not Used Must be 0
Bit5 : Not Used Must be 0
Bit4 : If SET the frame is compressed using zlib deflate method.
Bit3 : If SET the frame is encrypted, with descriptions in ENCR Frame.
Bit2 : If SET Frame has been unsynchronized.
Bit1 : If SET a data length indiciator is present.
LSB

That's All Folks
For more information visit,
» http://www.id3.org

Windows Registry : Something you must know

Intro
Whats this all about ? Registry is the place where most windows programs store some data associated with that program. Moreover, registry is used by windows to store much of the configuration information, file associations, start up programs, etc ...

The registry is mainly divided into 5 sections

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT
HKEY_CURRENT_USER : Current User Preferences.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE (HKLM): Global Preferences.
HKEY_USERS
HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG : Current System Configuration.

Using the Registry

The Regedit is similar to the explorer, the left side consists of a Tree View with the various folder locations, and the right side shows the contents of the particular folder. A folder contains sub folders, key-value pairs and a (default) value.
To edit the key values right click to see the menu or double click the key.
To open a folder just double click or use the left side tree to navigate to the folder.

Important Registry Locations

Start Up

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

: This location consists of all the programs that are executed by the computer after windows has loaded. Check this location periodically, most virus makes an entry here to startup when windows runs.

Shell Folders

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders

Stores all shell folder locations like My Documents, Music, Pictures etc,.

System Settings

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System 

: Certain critical applications such as the task manager and registry editor can be disabled by entries in this folder.
If DisableRegistryTools, DisableTaskMgr
has a value 1, then regedit.exe and taskmgr.exe (registry editor and task manager cannot be run !!) Some viruses make use of this to disable the end tasking of virus applications.

Cancelling Automatic System Shutdown on XP

Introduction
Have you ever lost valuable data because of the automatic shutdown window that pops up now and then? Have you been frustrated by this window ?



The SYSTEM SHUTDOWN window
Appears mostly when XP considers itself unstable and needs to reboot, It gives us a window of barely 1 minute to pack up our things and save all the work etc. But what if you want more than a minute to do this. End Tasking or Closing the window does not work.

Here is how to do it ..

• Run the command prompt ( Start > Run > Open: cmd )


• In the command prompt, type :

  shutdown -a



• Thats all

This procedure aborts the system shutdown and gives you enough time to save all your work. It is strongly recommended that you manually reboot the system after you are done with the saving.

Google Search for Pro's

Intro
Google is more than simply search engine, it is a multi faceted tool which can be used by professionals in all ventures. Here is the google language for searching :

• [site:]This modifier is used to limit search results to a specified site. Eg:orkut hacks site:digitalpbk.blogspot.com


• [allintitle:]This modifier when used will limit all your search queries to within the title. Eg: allintitle:the digital me


• [intitle:]This modifier when used will limit first search query to within the title. Eg: the digital me intitle:digital arun
  This will return all sites with digital on the title and contain arun anywhere in the document.


• [allinurl:]This modifier when used will limit all your search queries to within the URL . Eg: allinurl:making wmp skin


• [inurl:]This modifier when used will limit the first search query to within the title. Eg: inurl:digitalpbk orkut
  Searches for digitalpbk in url and orkut in the document



• [define:] This keyword attempts to find you a definition of the search query you have mentioned. Eg define:wifi


• [info:] Info provides information about a given web page. Eg: info:digitalpbk.blogspot.com


• [related:]. This keyword will produce search results related to the query specified.


• [link:] This keyword links all pages that links to your specified site.


• [cache:] This keyword lists pages that inside the google cache.